BY LORY POUNDER

November 1, 2007


FRISCO — The wildfires in Southern California demonstrated how effective defensible space, building restrictions that require less flammable materials and Firewise programs are, but also how dangerous building close to the forest can be, said U.S. Forest Service Dillon District Ranger Rick Newton.

Newton recently returned from a week of fighting the Ranch Fire that burned 58,401 acres in Ventura County. Thursday morning he talked about the experience during a Mountain Pine Beetle Task Force meeting at the Best Western Lake Dillon Lodge.

“We are expecting to have increased fire activity (in Summit County) because of the beetle,” Newton said. “That’s a given.”

Currently, the Forest Service has hired contractors who are working to create defensible space by removing trees in the area of the County Commons, St. Anthony Summit Medical Center and Summit High School, Newton said. The same is planned for other areas throughout the county, projects which will happen next year.

However, the work is costly because of the lack of bulk diesel fuel in the area, the poor market for the trees, hauling and other challenges they’ve faced, commented one of the contractors working in the area. As another option for mitigation, Newton is looking to the possibility of prescribed fires in areas that are less accessible.

In California, access is easy. The equipment can get where it needs to be through the extensive road system. Here that is not the case, Newton said. In addition, people still use trees by their homes to screen neighbors and maintain the mountain atmosphere, behavior contrary to being fire safe. And many homes are built within 10 feet of the forest boundary which creates a dangerous situation, he said.

Brandon Williams, spokesman for Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue, said that the dense communities that have been here for many years are some of the biggest concerns because it is hard to get equipment in to fight fires or do mitigation.

During the meeting, state Rep. Dan Gibbs, who is also a wildland firefighter currently helping at the Santiago Fire in Orange County, called in to talk about what he is seeing there.

It was his seventh day and he was waiting for an assignment alongside Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue firefighter Jonathon Bradley at the staging area. Primarily, they’ve focused on structure protection and cleaning up spot fires, Gibbs said.

He’s been impressed with the amount of resources in California and how firefighters from across the country are working together.

“They throw everything at the fire and then some,” Gibbs said.

Bradley said something he’s seen that Summit County could benefit from is placing restrictions at the local level on what kind of building will be allowed by the forest. Also, the buildings in California that were required to use less flammable materials are the ones that have survived, he said.

Lory Pounder can be reached at (970) 668-4628, or at lpounder@summitdaily.com.