The Wasatch County Fire Department is hosting a public information meeting this Thursday night in Heber. They’re inviting anyone who is concerned about the wildland fire conditions coming up this summer.
The meeting will be held on May 9th, Thursday from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Senior Citizen Center in Heber, at 465 East 1200 South.
The Public Information Officer for the Wasatch Fire District, Janet Carson said the wet winter could result in a more dangerous summer than normal, when the lush vegetation left by the snowfall starts to dry out in a couple of months.
They hope for a good turn-out at the forum.
“More than anything we’re really encouraging those that live in the urban interface area,” Carson said. “Which is off the valley floor where wildfire is a little more critical.”
The meeting will feature several presentations from state and local fire officials.
“We're going to have the chief there who's going to give a short presentation,” Carson explained. “The wildland fire warden is going to give a presentation. We have an expert from the state who actually has a map that he's going to put up on the screen and show a potential area for a wildland fire. He can actually create a fire on the screen to show with this system where the fire is going to move, how winds are going to affect it, different things like that. The potential for the damage that could be done. He's going to pick two areas in Wasatch County to do this simulation. It's really amazing to see this and to see how fire can grow and the type of fuel that it takes to make it grow faster.”
They will also look at a fuel safety issue that was sparked by the recent explosions of two homes near Heber.
“I know everyone’s aware of the cabin explosion that we have had in the Timber Lakes area recently,” Carson continued. “We're going to have propane expert there. We’re going to talk about those explosions. What could have happened, how to prevent that from happening, propane safety. All those types of things that's kind of top in people's mind right now. We do know that it was because of something that happened with the propane. The state experts that were here on the investigation are going to be at that meeting and going to talk about it Thursday night. So, we're hoping we can get some information on what to do to prevent it or what could have happened that cause these explosions.”
Carson added that citizens are also invited to respond to a two-question survey asking about what topics to discuss on Thursday. It can be found on the District’s Facebook page.
