COLORADO SPRINGS — A few weeks ago, News5 spoke with the Stratmoor Hills Fire Protection District when they were on the ground helping with the wildfires in LA.
Now that the crew is back here in Colorado Springs, we followed with them about the lessons they have learned and how they are going to use that to help fight wildfires here in Colorado.
"It was very scary also, to be honest with you, to see so many homes devastated and to see the amount of destruction that had already happened at that point was a very sobering effect," said AJ Patalano, a Stratmoor Hills Fire Protection District Engineer.
The Stratmoor Fire Protection District was called out to help with the LA fires nearly a month ago. AJ and his crew were there for two weeks.
He tells News5 he and his team had to overcome many challenges.
"We had multiple problems too, and include this apparatus is the size of our rig. There was downed power lines everywhere, making sure the communication was on point at all times," he said.
He said they also had to get creative fighting a fire of that size.
"That's called the Halligan, and it's normally used for forcible entry in the structural world. We had decided to keep it on, and we used it as a turnkey to turn water off to homes."
Stratmoor Hills may be a smaller fire department, but they had the experience to fight the fires in LA, which has similar terrain to Colorado.
He emphasizes that our community can help prevent wildfires by cleaning up dead trees, leaves, and pine needles.
He also says to have a plan to evacuate.
"It is a very unnerving thought to think, man... if a wildfire came through here. But if you take 10 minutes and come up with a plan of, okay, if I clean up this tree and make this area more accessible in my yard, and you know, I know the hydrant by my house is covered by bushes, I'll trim that back. That's a huge benefit to all of us," said Patalano.
The fire district is now planning to gather all their photos and videos from the LA fires to make a training documentary to help other firefighters.
Watch the full story above.
Union workers at King Soopers stores in Pueblo are set to go on strike on Friday
The announcement came from Local 7 President Kim Kordova on Thursday during a news conference, according to Scripps News Denver.
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