by Richard Uhlhorn
before it was controlled.
Being Fire Ready is this year’s Earth Day Theme. The annual Earthday celebration will be held in Riverwalk Park on Saturday, April 20, with plenty of booths and events surrounding the “Be Kind To Earth Day.”
2024 Fire Danger seems to be on many people’s minds these days as the prediction of a hot, dry summer approaches. Fuels will be at their driest, and almost anything can spark the next major fire strorm in the Lake Chelan Valley.
One of the biggest factors in being fire ready is to create defensible space around property. That includes 30 to 100 feet around homes, clean roofs, brush removal, pruned trees, and wood piles at least 30 feet away from structures.
This year, Earth Day will have plenty of information available to those attending the celebration. Chelan Fire & Rescue along with other agencies will be on hand to impart their knowledge and a number of April Slagle’s Chelan High School biology students will help deliver information to the public.
To prepare the students, the class visited the fire station on Tuesday, April 16, to learn about wildfire. and the potentially extreme fire danger this year because of the low Snow Pack and dry conditions brought about by Climate Change.
Scott Beaton, the originator of Earth Day, has been very concerned with the potential fire danger ina and around the Lake Chelan Valley, and has been working hard with the Fire District and School to prepare major presentations at Earth Day on this year’s dangerous conditions and why residents, new and old, along with tourists attending Earth Day, should be more educated about the dangers.
“We need to get people to understand that there could be a bad fire this year,” Beaton told the class. He mentioned that 70 percent of the residents think their property is well protected while only 23 percent of firefighters think they are.
Slagle stated that none of her class have had any fire experience. “In 2015, they were
He described recent devastating fires in and around the region including the 2015 fire that raged through South Chelan and did millions of dollars in damage.
Slagle mentioned that none of her students have had fire experience. “In 2015, they were to young to understand.”
Beaton’s concern is a wind event coupled with a fire that could burn Chelan to the ground. He wants to see a map produced that shows the major fuel areas like local ravines that are full of dry fuels.
The students also learned from Chelan firefighters Will Steady and Stephanie Preheim about the causes of wildfire from lightning events, campfires, sparks from vehicles, sparks from chains dragging no concrete and fireworks. “Fuels are everywhere,” explained Steady.
Preheim explained that she got involved in firefighting in Wenatchee when an entire neighborhood burned down because of flying embers. “The more we can expose the fire danger to the community, the better we will be,” said Preheim. She added that people have short memories of the past fire events.
Assistant Chief Shaun Sherman said that what a family does before a fire is better than what you are trying to do to protect your home during an emergency.
The students asked questions about evacuations, remote fires in the wilderness, spring burning, smoke which were answered by both Steady and Priheim.
Slagle gave her students an assignment to write a narrative about the presentations and to check the fire danger in all directions around their homes out to 30 feet.
If you are interested in preparing for this year’s potential fire danger around your property, stop by the Fire Department’s booth at Saturday’s Earth Day which begins at 10 a.m. and lasts until 4 p.m.
All Things Lake Chelan 