Living with wildfires and how to prepare
(COLORADO SPRINGS)– It is wildfire season and the Colorado Springs Fire Department and community leaders are hosting town hall meetings to help people prepare.
Colorado’s dry atmosphere makes the Pikes Peak region more prone to wildfires, which is why on Tuesday community members learned about wildfire threats and how to prepare their homes, get emergency notifications, and have evacuation plans.
“The most recent wildfire to affect our town is the West Monument Creek Fire,” says Jessica McIntire the Wildfire Mitigation Program Administrator with the Colorado Springs Fire Department.
The Colorado Springs Fire Department’s wildfire town halls are used to encourage people to have conversations like how to prepare homes, create a wildfire action plan, and know when and how to evacuate.
“Being prepared, how to get information, how to safeguard your property, how to be prepared for an emergency, things like that. Just if you’re prepared for an emergency, it just makes everything safer for everyone in our community,” says Ben Bills the El Paso Teller County 911 Authority.
CSFD says it’s important to have a grab bag with any valuables or things you may need if you have to evacuate. many homeowners have large areas of dry bush near or on their property. With winds picking up and more dry days ahead fire weather concerns are growing across the region.
“As far as the weather outlook for the upcoming fire season, we do expect there to be a hot and dry part of the season. But then there will likely also be monsoons as well,” said McIntire.
CSFD says 99 percent of wildfires are caused by people, which means they are preventable.
“The majority of fires are human-caused by men, women, and children, but there is a small percentage of fires that are naturally occurring as well,” said McIntire.
CSFD added the biggest concerns for the department are people along the mountains with large areas of open space. and along highways. They say subscribing to Pikes Peak alerts can save lives in the event of a wildfire, it will send alerts and give important updates and information like when it’s time to evacuate.
” There’s smoke billowing over the mountain. We see a lot of people go in and sign up for emergency alerts during the incident. If there’s smoke in the air, it’s too late, said Bills.
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