Public urged to guard against wildfire threat

Friday, Feb. 23, 2001 | 11:20 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- State Forester Steve Robinson said today that state government is limited in its ability to fight wildfires and that homeowners must help in guarding against these blazes.

"The public must face the realization that we simply do not have the fire engines available to put one in front of every house," Robinson told the Nevada Land Use Summit. "When large-scale wildland fires occur near residential areas, homes are going to burn."

"Property owners must become active partners in dealing with the destructiveness of unplanned wildland fires," Robinson said.

Officers who are directing firefighting efforts "by necessity" look at the measures homeowners have put into place to minimize the risk of wildfires, Robinson said.

After this assessment, firefighters determine which homes can be realistically and safely defended with the limited resources at hand, Robinson said.

"Homeowners must take responsibility -- and Nevadans are good at this -- to help the fire suppression system defend their homes by implementing and maintaining defensible space measures to alter the fuel bed and potentially destructive fire behavior," Robinson said.

The forester said the state needs to increase its efforts in educating landowners about strategies for protecting their properties against fire.

Firefighting officials recommend a buffer zone between a home and vegetation as one defense against wildland blazes.

Robinson said Gov. Kenny Guinn has endorsed a partnership between private landowners and government agencies. The long-term efforts call for rehabilitating burned land.

This partnership, Robinson said, can restore Nevada's wildland by "starting to eliminate invasive weeds, bringing back native vegetation, improving wildlife habitat and livestock forage, and protecting water quality and restoring the land to a naturally functioning condition."