Wildfire 2016 raises awareness for fire season
By Arin McKenna, Los Alamos Monitor
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 at 12:13 pm (Updated: March 30, 2:36 pm)
Saturday’s Wildfire 2016 event began with a bang, as hordes of youngsters scoured Ashley Pond Park for Easter eggs.
The annual Easter Egg Hunt was sponsored by the Los Alamos Elks Lodge No. 2083, with help from the First Baptist Church of Los Alamos. Within 15 minutes, 11,000 eggs had disappeared into children’s baskets and bags.
After that, children could visit with Smokey Bear and Sparky the Fire Dog or get close up views of fire trucks and police vehicles. But the main focus of the event was teaching residents how to protect their homes and families.
One of the highlights was a children’s bike helmet giveaway. Helmets were donated by Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and fitted by members of the Los Alamos Fire Department Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Bike Team.
The bike team also offered bike safety training and provided bicycle safety inspections.
“We’re providing helmets and safety instruction for kids so we improve the overall safety through the community, with the overall hope that we can eliminate any kind of bicycle accidents involving kids,” said LAFD EMS chief Benjamin Stone.
LAFD provided residents with useful information about protecting their homes, including “A homeowner’s guide to wildfire retrofit,” advice on how to create defensible space and how to prepare in case a wildfire threatens. Those handouts are available at the LAFD administrative offices, 999 Central Avenue, 662-8301. Some of the information is also available on the website, losalamosnm.us/fire.
Another group of firefighters handed out toy fire helmets to kids, along with an educational activity coloring book titled “Firefighters are my friends.” Both the coloring book and a brochure titled “Teach your kids about fire safety” included checklists for parents on how to protect their children from fire and burns.
National Forest Service representatives were on hand with information about how to prevent fires and the U.S. Fire Administration’s recommendations for fire preparedness.
Representatives from the Los Alamos Police Department (LAPD) promoted Code Red, the county’s emergency notification service.
The program provides alerts on anything that poses a danger to the safety, property and welfare of the community. Notifications include AMBER alerts, emergency preparedness, wildfire, a public health crisis, criminal activity, hazardous traffic and road conditions, advisories and evacuation notices.
Residents and businesses can sign up to receive notifications by phone, text, email or social media at losalamosnm.us/emo.
Private companies offering defensible space services were also on hand.
Gary Hampton, of Gary Hampton Stump Grinding (formerly Stump Busters) was introducing the new owners of the company. Hampton has been in business since shortly after the Cerro Grande fire.
Hampton recently sold the business to brothers Aaron and Ryan McNiff and Manny Pacheco, who have renamed the company Northern New Mexico Stump Grinders. Hampton will be transferring the company’s phone number to them, 662-5271.
Daniel Martinez provided information about his company, Southwest Fire Defense. (505-500-6106.)
The company offers hazard mitigation planning, emergency operation planning, erosion control, forest thinning and fuel mitigation.
For homeowners, the company can help implement fire department recommendations, such as cleaning out gutters, cleaning chimneys and creating defensible space (Firewise landscaping).
Martinez is an appointed member of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Wildfire Task Force and a member of the Southwest Fire Protection Association. His team includes structural firefighters, wildland firefighters, EMT’s, a biologist, a crisis and emergency management expert, a civil engineer and land planners.
“Our big goal is to get out, educate homeowners, get people prepared for what they need to do to protect their property,” Martinez said.