Carbondale officials review wildfire incident command, ReachWell alerts and evacuation zones

Carbondale Town Board members met with the Carbondale Fire District for an executive briefing on wildfire response and communications, during which fire Chief Rob Goodwin outlined how the Incident Command System (ICS) would operate in a large wildfire and said the town and fire district are coordinating to expand ReachWell alerts and finalize evacuation zones.

The session focused on who sets incident objectives, how unified command would function if multiple agencies are involved, and how the town should use preplanned evacuation zones and messaging channels to reach residents quickly. "One day, it will be our turn," Chief Rob Goodwin said, describing the potential for a wildfire to spread into Carbondale and the need for aligned priorities across agencies.

Why it matters: Carbondale lies in wildfire country and the fire district told the board that large, fast-moving fires can require days of continuous operations, outside incident management teams and multiagency coordination. Board members and staff discussed communication platforms and mapping that would direct evacuation notices, multilingual outreach and short-term mitigation actions to reduce home ignition risk.

Most important elements discussed

- Incident command and executive roles: Goodwin, the chief of the Carbondale Fire District, reviewed ICS basics for executives and said the board’s role is to set policy, mission and priorities and then delegate operational authority to an incident commander. He explained that a management team for a major incident can number dozens of people and that the incident action plan (IAP) drives operational periods and resource orders.

- Communications and a common alert channel: Goodwin said the fire district and Town of Carbondale staff are working to create a shared ReachWell channel to allow residents to subscribe directly to local emergency messages. "We're gonna have our own ReachWell channel, which is huge," Goodwin said, adding the intent is to launch the channel in April and use it for routine messaging so residents are familiar with it before a major incident.

- Evacuation zones and prewritten messages: Staff described preplanned evacuation zone maps and short, preformatted messages that dispatch could send through ReachWell, Everbridge and other systems. The mapping work included smaller, actionable zone boundaries for sections of town; Billy Gavett, a former deputy chief and fire marshal, led earlier zone work that staff said will inform messages to dispatch.

- Staffing, logistics and limits: Officials warned that initial response capacity is limited. Goodwin said the district operates five stations across roughly 300 square miles and maintains multiple 24/7 staffed stations (four responders at the Carbondale station and two at the West End station), plus a mix of career and volunteer personnel. Board members and staff emphasized the limits of water systems, mutual aid timelines and the need to track costs and personnel time for potential reimbursement or cost-sharing.

- Equity and multilingual outreach: Staff and the fire district confirmed messages will be issued bilingually and noted the fire district already maintains a Spanish-language website. Board members urged continued outreach through Spanish-language radio and other trusted local channels.

Next steps and planning timeline

Town and fire officials agreed on several near-term actions: finalize and publicize the shared ReachWell channel (targeted for April), run ICS training for department heads (already planned), conduct a tabletop exercise in May with department heads and then a larger tabletop that includes the elected board, and pursue targeted community mitigation work with the Rolling Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative. The board asked staff to consider a public meeting or a community outreach campaign tied to the ReachWell rollout and spring cleanup events to encourage resident sign-ups and property mitigation.

What officials did not decide or could not specify

There was no formal policy vote recorded in this meeting. Officials did not adopt a specific evacuation destination list for all scenarios because routes depend on where a fire starts and how it moves; staff said evacuation destinations (for example, Basalt schools or other shelters) must be prearranged with receiving jurisdictions and the school district. Several practical limits — including precise lists of residents who require assistance, the times when state incident teams could arrive and exact mitigation funding amounts — were described as "not specified" or items staff will update in future planning.

Ending

Board members and staff described the briefing as an initial, ongoing phase of a broader preparedness effort focused on communications, evacuation mapping and mitigation. They scheduled follow-up training and exercises and asked staff to return with outreach materials, ReachWell enrollment steps and proposed mitigation priorities for the board’s review.