Tri-Lakes Tribune 050913

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Tribune Tri Lakes 5/8/13

May 8, 2013

Tri-Lakes

75 cents

A Colorado Community Media Publication

ourtrilakesnews.com

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Community gets informed about fire action plans Meeting held to discuss emergency preparedness, mitigation and the Waldo Canyon Fire

‘We would like to see everywhere in the district a proactive approach

By Lisa Collacott

from homeowners to help

lcollacott@ourcoloradonews.com Woodmoor and other Tri-Lakes residents attended a community meeting about emergency preparedness and putting together a personal wildfire action plan. The meeting, on April 30, was hosted by the Woodmoor Improvement Association Firewise committee and featured three experts in the area. Bryan Jack, interim fire chief for the Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Protection District, Kathy Russell, head of emergency preparedness for El Paso County and Dave Root, assistant district forester for the Colorado State Forest Service discussed the Waldo Canyon Fire, mitigation and evacuation plans. Jack talked about how the TLMFPD has prepared to respond to incidents and what their capabilities are. Jack said it is vital to use 911 to call in a wild land fire because that sets the stage for their response. Seven fire trucks and 14 people will initially respond from the TLMFPD as well as 7-14 firefighting vehicles and 40 personnel from the eight other districts that are part of the mutual aid partnership. “That plan is already prearranged and it’s been in effect for several years,� Jack said. He said as far as evacuations go they are going to look at the incident and get a good size up of the fire. If at any time they believe the fire exceeds their capabilities they will call in ad-

us help you.’ Bryan Jack, interim fire chief

"U B DPNNVOJUZ NFFUJOH 8PPENPPS SFTJEFOUT IFBSE JOGPSNBUJPO PO UIF 8BMEP $BOZPO 'JSF FNFSHFODZ QSFQBSFEOFTT BOE Ăś SF NJUJHBUJPO 1JDUVSFE GSPN MFGU BSF ,BUIZ 3VTTFMM IFBE PG FNFSHFODZ QSFQBSFEOFTT GPS &M 1BTP $PVOUZ %BWF 3PPU BTTJTUBOU EJTUSJDU GPSFTUFS GPS UIF $PMPSBEP 4UBUF 'PSFTU 4FSWJDF BOE #SZBO +BDL JOUFSJN Ăś SF DIJFG GPS UIF 5SJ -BLFT .POVNFOU 'JSF 1SPUFDUJPO %JTUSJDU Photo by Lisa Collacott ditional mutual aid and contact the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. They will tell the incident management team that the fire is going to expand beyond their capabilities and they need to get people out of there. He said the sheriff will issue the evacuation notice. One of the questions posed to Jack was why go through all the trouble with of preparing for wild land fire when there has not been a major fire in Woodmoor and they have what they consider adequate protection from the fire district. “It’s kind of clichĂŠ and I’m sure you’ve heard it lots of times, it’s not if but when.

How can we be proactive to reduce the effect when that fire occurs? From an agency standpoint that’s what we’re looking at,� Jack said. “We would like to see everywhere in the district a proactive approach from homeowners to help us help you.� Russell said the emergency management office is continuing preparations based on lessons learned from the Waldo Canyon fire because there will be another response. She said the county learned many lessons from the fire. “Personal preparedness is absolutely essential. You can’t expect to have a fire truck

parked in your driveway. You can’t expect to have a fire truck come to your neighborhood and we saw this in Waldo Canyon. On average in the United States of America you have one uniformed first responder for every 800 citizens and most of the time that works out just fine because not everyone is having a problem at the same time. When everybody is having a problem at the same time we call that a disaster and the rules are radically different in that case,� Russell said. Russell said in wild land firefighting triage training her instructor once told the class, “Don’t be afraid to write-off a house, I write-off whole neighborhoods.� “Personal preparedness is absolutely critical. You can’t wait for a call. You can’t wait for a knock on the door. You’ve got to have your plan in place and be ready to pull the trigger yourself,� Russell added. Russell said when you’re talking about planning your worst case scenario assume Fire continues on Page 9

Veterans to be honored at cemetery on Memorial Day Reading of the names of veterans buried in Monument cemetary By Lisa Collacott

lcollacott@ourcoloradonews.com A ceremony to honor veterans will take place at the Monument cemetery on Memorial Day. For more than three decades veterans buried in the Monument cemetery are remembered and honored and this year will be no different. The hour-long ceremony will take place at 10:00 a.m. on May 27. The names of all 94 veterans buried there will be read along with six other veterans from the Tri-Lakes area who never made it home from war. Monument Trustee John Howe said about 200 people usually attend the ceremony and it’s not just Tri-Lakes residents that come out. Family members who have veterans buried there come from across the country to be a part of the ceremony. “We get people from Wyoming, just passing through that come to the ceremony� Howe said. Mayor Travis Easton will be the master of the ceremonies and there will be prayer from representatives of four local churches. The presentation of the flag will be given by POSTAL ADDRESS

Col. Al Forbes and local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will have the honor of raising the flag. “For the first time we will have the Girl Scouts,� Howe added. The names of the veterans will be read by Col. Anne Campbell, Col. Jim Clemans, Col. Bill Kaelin and the ringing of the gong will be done by Max Williams. The “Star Spangled Banner� and “God Bless America� will be sung during the ceremony accompanied by the Lewis-Palmer Middle School band. Members of the Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Protection District and the Monument and Palmer Lake Police Departments will have the honor of the color guard. The honored speaker for the ceremony will be Col. Barrie Town. Refreshments will be served at the conclusion of the ceremony. The Monument cemetery is located at the corner of Beacon Lite Road and 8th Street. “Everyone is invited,� Howe said.

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