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After Helene blowdown, county outlines wildfire prevention, HMGP requests and 36‑site weather/camera plan
Summary
Ryan Cole told commissioners Helene left roughly 45,163 acres of blowdown that raised fuel loads and limited access; the county is seeking HMGP funds for parcel‑level risk mapping, planning community wildfire protection plans, a pilot AI camera system, and a 36‑site weather station network while urging homeowners to create defensible space.
Ryan Cole presented the county’s wildfire prevention and resiliency plan rooted in operational lessons from the Helene event and ongoing mitigation work.
Cole said Helene produced extensive blowdown — “we lost 45,000, 163 acres, forest that’s been severely damaged” — that increased fuel loads and, he said, significantly limited access for firefighters. That debris, Cole said, extends time to establish fire lines: tasks that once took 30 minutes can now take several hours because crews must clear downed trees and other debris.
The county’s approach, Cole said, rests on education (defensible‑space campaigns and social media outreach), operational readiness (a regional wildland task force to deploy across north/south/east/west regions) and mitigation…
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