MCA Meeting Recap: April 2022
After fire unexpectedly swept through parts of Superior, Louisville, and unincorporated Boulder County in late 2021, Central Park residents, particularly those in the North End and Beeler Park neighborhoods, have expressed concern about fire in the community’s vast open spaces, as well as the myriad acres located due North in the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. To this end, the Central Park MCA invited members of the Denver Fire Department to speak at the last community forum, where Department Chief, Desmond G. Fulton, and Division Chief, Robert Murphy, eloquently addressed the issue at hand, offering reassuring facts and practical advice.
Denver Fire Department (Station 39, Central Park)
Denver's newest company, Engine 39, is located in Central Park, near the intersection of Central Park Boulevard and Northfield Boulevard, and all of the firehouses in Denver are strategically placed to give the most expeditious service, with a new station coming to the intersection of Pena Boulevard and 56th Avenue.
As Denver Fire is held to both City of Denver and State of Colorado standards, it operates with a four-minute response time. The Denver Fire Department has two seals, including an ISO Class 1 Certification, which relates to its remarkable water delivery systems.
“One of the most effective things homeowners can do is replace wood mulch around their homes with rock mulch, and turn on their sprinklers in the event of a fire.”
People rarely think of Denver as a fire prone area, and yet as the Waldo Canyon, and more recently, the Marshall Fire, proved fire can happen anywhere. That said, Denver Firefighters are continually pre-planning the neighborhoods they work in, planning for all types of emergencies, including urban wildfires.
Fire engines are pre-positioned throughout the city to respond to an outside brush or grass fire, with approximately 200 wildland firefighters with skills to fight urban fires, and most wildland engines are positioned on the Northeast side of Denver near Central Park.
Denver Fire also partners with local fire departments, e.g., Aurora, Castlerock, Boulder, etc. so there can be a well-coordinated and timely responses to an emergencies via "strike teams," while still keeping engines in place for local municipalities.
Aftermath of the Marshall Fire, December 2021
Steps to Protect Homeowners & Business Owners
1. Residents and business owners are encouraged to update insurance annually
2. Take a home inventory for insurance purposes, e.g., serial numbers, photos of belongings.
3. Develop a family-based emergency communication plan, beforehand to be well prepared.
4. Assemble a 72-Hour To-Go-Bag, e.g., the Red Cross has diagrams of this.
5. Visit the Denver office of emergency management for text alerts.
6. Replace wood mulch around homes with rock mulch.
Note: During the Waldo Fire people turned on their sprinklers to successfully protect property.
Denver Fire Department and Rocky Mountain Arsenal
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal does not need to check in with Denver Fire, but the Arsenal does regularly conduct prescribed burns.
Also, 90% of Denver's wildland fire engines are kept on the Northeast side of the city.
From an MCA perspective, the best thing that can be done in the parks is to keep the vegetation low through regular mowing.
SBA.gov wildfire protection; Denver Ready (wildfire preparedness).
Denver Fire is the largest wildland fire department in the state.
Update on the Recent Central Park Fire off of Akron Street
On March 27, 2022 a call came in, and the fire department responded. The brush fire was half an acre, along Sand Creek. A preconnected line was set up, and an encampment with propane tanks was discovered. This was an unhoused (homeless) encampment.