OCN

Volunteers reporting on community issues in Monument, Palmer Lake, and the surrounding Tri-Lakes area

OCN > 2502 > Letters to Our Community – Wildfire call to action

Letters to Our Community – Wildfire call to action

As I have watched the events of the last several days unfold in Southern California, I have been reflecting on what more we can do as a community with our wildfire preparedness and mitigation efforts. A wildland-urban interface conflagration is the greatest threat to lives and property within our jurisdiction. We need only look back to 2021 to recall the devastation wrought by the Marshall Fire in Boulder County that killed two people and destroyed 991 structures, becoming the most destructive fire in Colorado history.

In recent years, Monument Fire District (MFD) has proactively been doing the following:

  • Hiring firefighters.
  • Purchasing wildfire-specific fire apparatus.
  • Developing wildfire preplans.
  • Partnering with the U.S. Forest Service to conduct a prescribed burn.
  • Writing a grant-funded community wildfire protection plan (CWPP) to include a partnership with the Town of Monument on a wildfire mitigation demonstration area adjacent to Monument Lake.
  • Free wildfire home inspection program.
  • Expanding our chipping/mitigation efforts with 23 homeowners associations.
  • Utilizing state of the art technology/software for real-time incident notification/evacuation.

And yet, I think we need to do more.

I understand that the ponderosa pine and vegetation are, in part, what attracted all of us to live in North El Paso County. However, fuels thinning and removal, planting fire-resistive fuels, and use fire-resistive materials in our home construction will make our community more resilient to wildfire. Today is a call to action to join our efforts to help prevent another Marshall Fire, Black Forest Fire, Waldo Canyon Fire, and what we have witnessed this week in Southern California.

I am asking each of you to help by establishing a chipping program in your community, become a FireWise community, mitigate your personal property, building or remodeling your home with fire-resistive materials in mind, have a free home inspection performed by MFD personnel, signing up for Peak Alerts, support removing vegetation from rights of way, and advocating wildfire preparedness to your neighbors.

We cannot do it without you! Please visit www.monumentfire.org or call 719-484-0911 to learn how to get involved.

Andy Kovacs
Fire Chief, Monument Fire District

Click here for Guidelines for letters.

Disclaimer: The information and opinions expressed in Letters to Our Community are the responsibility of the letter writers and should not be interpreted as the views of OCN even if the letter writer is an OCN volunteer. When there is more than one letter, the letters are arranged in alphabetical order based on the last name of the author.

Other Letters to Our Community