Carbondale reviews wildfire response plan, evacuation zones and new emergency alerts

Carbondale town officials and leaders from the Carbondale Fire District met for a wildfire preparedness briefing focused on executive roles in incident command, evacuation planning and coordinated public alerts.

The session centered on how local leaders fit into the incident command system, whose purpose is to create one set of objectives and a single, coordinated message during a major wildfire. Chief Rob Goodwin of the Carbondale Fire District said, "1 day, it will be our turn. It's just the way it is," stressing the inevitability of a local wildfire and the need for joint planning.

The meeting reviewed operational and organizational expectations for a large incident. Goodwin described how an incident management team scales up — from local ad-hoc command to complex incident teams of roughly 56 to 60 managers — and the logistics and finance functions that follow. He noted past local fires, including Lake Christine and Storm King, as reminders that large responses can last for days and require…