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Councilors urge urgent wildfire mitigation work and neighborhood evacuation planning
Summary
A council member urged immediate mitigation this June — fuel removal, evacuation planning and assistance for elderly residents — citing recent fires that destroyed homes and warning that delay into July increases risk.
A council/committee member (Speaker 5) told the council that Alpine has a short window this June to reduce wildfire risk and urged the city and neighborhoods to step up mitigation work.
Speaker 5 described a recent volunteer-led presentation about a catastrophic fire where propane tanks and garages led to rapid structure losses and said volunteers and contractors reported losing 13 homes in that incident. "We need an evacuation plan that we could publish to people of how they get out," Speaker 5 said, and urged converting service projects (for example Eagle Scout projects) into fire mitigation work in neighborhoods near high-risk vegetation.
Speaker 5 listed concrete steps: neighborhood fuel removal, trimming trees low to the ground, removing dry brush within 30 feet of structures, and supporting elderly residents who cannot complete mitigation tasks themselves. The speaker said some residents cite equipment costs (roughly $1,000 cited for a small trailer and tools) as a barrier and asked whether the city could help coordinate or fund mitigation equipment and neighborhood cleanup.
Council staff (Speaker 3) and other members said coordination is already underway with regional fire planning (CWPP noted) and existing emergency committees, but Speaker 5 asked whether the council would resurrect a focused emergency committee for local coordination. Members agreed to coordinate further and to consider agenda time for a mitigation update.
