With the recent high winds and choke-holding drought in Teller
County, the danger of fire remains high, despite the recent
snow.
“Unfortunately, we have similar weather conditions to what we
saw in 2002,” said Jim Heenan, chief of Northeast Teller County
Fire Protection District. “It’s crunchy dry.”
Checking the long-range weather patterns, the outlook doesn’t
good.
“The forecast is for average, or below-average, levels of
moisture,” Heenan said. “We’re in a situation now where the fire
danger is going to be high, so we’re asking people to be
careful.”
On high alert, the firefighters will treat any smoke call as a
potential fire.
“We’re going to run engines, tenders and brush trucks to the
scene,” Heenan said.
With increased training and fitness testing, the department
certifies 95 percent of its crew of 44, 30 of whom are career
personnel while 14 are volunteer firefighters.
“We encourage certification because of the nature of the
community, the area we serve,” Heenan said. “If we just measure
what we do with a little common sense, we’ll probably get through
the season a lot better.”