COLORADO SPRINGS — The Colorado Springs Fire Department is bringing back a series of town hall meetings that help to educate our community on what to do if a wildfire broke out in your area.
Fires like the Waldo Canyon Fire which spread rapidly in Colorado Springs over 10 years ago, can leave our community with much devastation.
But that particular fire also showed us how fire mitigation not only works to protect homes but also, changes the behavior of a wildfire.
I spoke with members of the Cedar Heights Community here in Colorado Springs. Members of this community tell me they remember the Waldo Canyon Fire like it was yesterday. This community’s mitigation efforts ended up protecting the homes in this neighborhood.
That is why this community meets every month to practice fire mitigation. They want to protect their homes and our city from the next potential fire.
“Our community members are so integrated and so eager and participate in that particular process. It’s like, “Oh great, you know, we are all working together.” This is part of sharing the responsibility and that’s a key part of what we want to be,” said Dick Standaert, a Cedar Heights community resident.
“So, it’s just evolved over the years, we’ve gone from call it 5 guys to now we have 26 men and women who are now part of the volunteer group for fire mitigation in cedar heights,” said Todd Crystal, a Cedar Heights community resident.
Here is a look at the regions being covered for tonight’s first town hall meeting:
- Cedar Heights
- Garden of the Gods/Pleasant Valley
- Holland Park
- Kissing Camels
- Mesa
- Mesa Springs
- Mountain Shadows
- Peregrine
- Pinecliff
These meetings will talk about how to prepare your home for fire through fire mitigation, how to create a wildfire action plan for your community, and how to evacuate if needed.
The meeting kicks off tonight at 6:30 and will run until 8 at the Colorado Springs Masonic Center on Panorama Drive. For a list of all of the scheduled meetings, visit here.
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