{"id":22039,"date":"2025-05-30T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-fire-chief-stresses-wildfire-mitigation-amid-drought-limited-resources\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T11:00:00","slug":"durango-fire-chief-stresses-wildfire-mitigation-amid-drought-limited-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-fire-chief-stresses-wildfire-mitigation-amid-drought-limited-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango fire chief stresses wildfire mitigation amid drought, limited resources"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Joe
Joe Wayne, a wildland firefighter with Durango Fire Protection District, keeps an eye on a tree he is felling on Wednesday that is in a fire mitigation project west of Durango. The project is 36 acres and is funded by an Environmental Protection Agency watershed improvement and infrastructures grant. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Following a mild winter in Southwest Colorado, the arrival of spring and summer brings a heightened risk for wildfires in the region \u2013 a risk that already has fire crews in Durango and the surrounding communities on edge.<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center\u2019s latest seasonal assessment, which forecasts drought conditions across the United States, predicts that drought in the region will persist through the summer.<\/p>\n

That fact, according to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control, indicates that \u201cfire potential in May will be normal across the entire state, then June will see southwestern Colorado with above-normal potential due to drought and anticipated hot, dry weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy
Courtesy of the U.S. Drought Monitor<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Especially for a place like Durango \u2013 which sits at the edge of several forests and grasslands and constitutes an urban-wildland interface \u2013 drought-fueled wildfires pose a unique risk, one that is especially concerning for Randy Black, fire chief of the Durango Fire Protection District.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re obviously very concerned,\u201d Black said. \u201cWe have been since January. When we have a winter with a very small amount of snow that we had this past year, that always is concerning for us. It\u2019s concerning for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elise
Elise Broderick, a wildland firefighter with Durango Fire Protection District, gathers tree limbs and brush on Wednesday that is in a fire mitigation project west of Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Black said that following the Los Angeles fires over the winter, he and his department began urging the public to begin working on making their homes and businesses in and around Durango more defensible against wildfires.<\/p>\n

By being proactive, Black explained, the community and fire departments would not be scrambling to react in the event of a fire. And should the worst case scenario occur, mitigating fire hazard around houses helps slow the fire\u2019s spread \u2013 something that can save time, lives, property and taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you change the flammability of your property, when you get rid of the pine needles, when you remove the mulch around your property, when you do things to make your house safer, that slows the spread of the fire to the next house,\u201d Black said. \u201cBut that\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to do mitigation on a large-scale project where you\u2019re looking at not just an individual property, but the effect that property has on its neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An
An area that will be thinned by Durango Fire Protection District firefighters. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
An area that will be thinned by Durango Fire Protection District firefighters. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Yet even with fire mitigation techniques, Black said, a fire outbreak in an area as large as the DFPD \u2013 which covers 325 square miles \u201cfrom the state line with New Mexico to the top of Coal Bank Pass\u201d and \u201cfrom about 6,000 feet by the state line, up to over 10,000 feet\u201d \u2013 takes time and resources to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo doing the mitigation work, doing those things to limit the potential spread \u2013 that\u2019s the key,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Black said DFPD could use more resources \u2013 specifically with funding and infrastructure \u2013 to better protect the growing community in Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we say, \u2018Here\u2019s all the stations and here\u2019s all the equipment that we have, we\u2019re running 6,500 calls a year right now,\u2019 to assume that everything is going to be there in the station and available when a call comes is not realistic,\u201d Black said. \u201cIt\u2019s more likely that at least one of our stations, and likely two of them, are active on a call, which means we have less capacity to be able to respond to a new call.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are a number of solutions to this problem, including building a new fire station in the Three Springs area, which, Black said, would \u201cadd capacity to the system. If we have three engines in the city limits right now, adding a fourth would be a 33% increase in capacity that we would be able to provide to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only problem is acquiring the funding, either through taxpayer dollars or federal grants.<\/p>\n

\"Gavin
Gavin Hamlin, a wildland firefighter with Durango Fire Protection District, thins out Gambel oak brush on Wednesday that is in a fire mitigation project area west of Durango. (Jerry McBride\/ Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

No matter what, Black said, the DFPD is well prepared to fight fires with what it has. Each of the department\u2019s volunteer and full-time firefighters is trained in wildland firefighting techniques, can respond to major outbreaks quickly, and has the option of contacting other departments from across the state and country if needed.<\/p>\n

But, Black said, a large part of keeping the area safe falls on the community. He explained that there are three major ways to do so:<\/p>\n

The first is to sign up for Code Red, a free emergency communication service that alerts recipients to fire danger and evacuation notices, by visiting www.lpcgov.org\/services\/public_safety\/emergency_information.php<\/a>The second is to have a plan in case of a fire evacuation: know how to exit safely, pack a go-bag with essential supplies and first aid, and have a place to go.The third, Black said, is to make safe choices \u2013 such as not setting off fireworks or leaving campfires unattended this summer, and installing spark arresters on lawn mowers and other power tools \u2013 to help prevent fires before they start.<\/div>\n

\u201cBe prepared, have a plan and then be safe,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Wayne, a wildland firefighter with Durango Fire Protection District, keeps an eye on a thee he is felling on Wednesday that is in a fire mitigation project area west of Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Efforts focus on early action, community awareness and smart planning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1480,28,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-fire-protection-district","tag-headlines","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22039"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}