Draper fuels crew building fuel break in Suncrest to reduce wildfire risk

Parker Hansen, fuels crew supervisor for the Draper City Fire Department, said a six-member fuels crew is creating a fuel break in the Suncrest foothills of Draper to reduce wildfire risk and improve firefighter access.

Hansen said the crew is cutting overgrown brush behind homes in Suncrest and piling the cut material for later burning. "Right now the crew is creating a fuel break," he said. "This fuel break will serve to help stop the progression of fire." He described the work as part of the crew's summer wildfire-mitigation responsibilities.

Hansen explained how the fuel break would be used in an active fire: cutting a path opens access so firefighters can establish control lines and, if needed, aircraft could be deployed "to drop retardant along this fuel break and help suppress fire." He said the piles of cut material will be burned at a later date rather than left in place.

The supervisor emphasized that thinning vegetation near houses improves defensible space for residents. "Typically, we're up behind a lot of the homes in Suncrest doing a lot of thinning just to help give those houses more defensible space," Hansen said. There were no motions, votes or formal actions recorded in the transcript; the remarks were a description of ongoing operational work by the fuels crew.

The immediate next steps described by Hansen were continuing the thinning and later burning of piled material under controlled conditions; no schedule or burn dates were specified in the transcript.