As most of you are aware, there was a wildfire in the Missouri Lakes Subdivision on Wednesday, June 26, at approximately 10:30 a.m. I wanted to take a few minutes to share my thoughts.

It is an understatement to say how incredibly proud I am of everyone who responded to this incident.  Their swift, brave, and decisive actions prevented this fire, which had significant potential to devastate the area, from spreading and turned it into a few-hour event. Absolutely amazing work!!! I also want to thank the community for following evacuation orders and doing so quickly and carefully; this allows the responders to focus on the fire instead of traffic jams, crazy driving, and chasing people out of their houses. 

There are many factors that account for the success of this fire.  Below are a few:

1. The fire was in a location that could be quickly accessed.
2. The fire was in a location where many people called 911 EARLY.
3. The weather, while hot and dry, was not extremely windy.
4. The fire was on relatively flat ground.
5. All the emergency response agencies came together with a common goal.

Timberline Fire works every day to be ready to serve the community in any way possible. In recent years, we have upgraded fire trucks, added fire trucks, upgraded stations, opened new stations, updated equipment, hired additional firefighters, recruited new volunteers, added a new mitigation team, and so on.  

I would like to elaborate on the mitigation team; many of you have seen our advertisements, received a free assessment, or even hired us for work. While the obvious benefit to this program is increasing mitigation throughout the district, the secondary and equally important benefit is those mitigation crew members are all wildland firefighters!  Yesterday, when the fire started, they were performing mitigation work in the Dory Lakes Subdivision. They heard the call, stopped what they were doing, and responded. The mitigation program enabled us to quickly get four additional certified firefighters on-scene seconds after the first arriving personnel. In the very near future, when you see the mitigation crew out working, they will have a wildland fire truck with them, ready to handle a similar situation if it arises. 

Contact our Mitigation Team today for your free assessment, 720-398-1972.

Now onto the not-so-good. I hope this fire is a wakeup call to everyone! It is no secret that Gilpin County has gotten hotter, drier, busier, and windier. We will see more fires as time goes on, and you need to be prepared, as we might not always be so lucky! 

1. Be ready to evacuate with little or no notice.
   1. If you look outside and it looks bad, LEAVE! Don’t wait for someone to tell you to evacuate.
   2. Know two ways to evacuate your location. Many places in Gilpin only have one road out. Be aware of a second option that you can take, even if it's on foot. 

2. Mitigate-Mitigate-Mitigate. The house closest to this fire had a beautiful aspen tree grove buffer between it and the fire. The fire stopped when it got to the aspen. If you need advice, CALL US! We have many ways to help. Our main office line is 303-582-5768.
   1. Remove pine trees near your house.
   2. Add non-combustible ground cover around your house.
   3. Limb up trees.
   4. Clean out your gutters.
   5. Check our website for more tips and keep your home healthy and clean.
3. Remove that pile of slash you cut 10 years ago but never hauled away. Remove that decaying pile of firewood that is never going to make it into the fireplace.  Remove that other pile of flammable “stuff” in your yard.  These things ARE a problem. They cause fires to burn significantly hotter and spread the fire faster.
4. Sign up for reverse-911 notification via Hyper-Reach. Go to timberlinefire.com for the link. Weather notifications can be turned off, if needed. Please do not turn off the reverse 911 notifications. 

Lastly, Timberline has a small number of career firefighters on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but the majority of your firefighting force are VOLUNTEERS!!  Some of them live outside the district and volunteer time in the fire station, working alongside the career staff, but many of your firefighters are neighbors and friends who live in the community.  These volunteer firefighters are notified of an incident through a pager, radio, or their cell phone. When this happens, they go to the nearest fire station, grab their personal protective equipment and a fire truck, and respond to the scene to assist. Timberline volunteers do so for many different reasons, including a desire to become a career firefighter, a desire to help the community, and a desire to protect their home and property, and some do it for the challenge, comradery, and fun.  

Your community needs more volunteer firefighters. If you are interested in more information, please go to www.timberlinefire.com and click the “Volunteer Today” tab. We have a new group of volunteers joining soon, so please don’t delay.

Paul Ondr
Fire Chief, Timberline Fire

www.timberlinefire.com