Dealing With Fire Season
Dealing With Fire Season. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.
One of the most devastating, unpredictable and down right scary natural disaster is fire. With tomorrow being the 4th of July and a large number of farmers working in their orchards right now it is a good time to think fire safety. Davie Kindell is the Fire Prevention Team Leader for the Department of Natural Resources Team 4 says a big part of preventing fires is accountability.
KINDELL: It’s not the fireworks that start the fires it’s how the user is using them. Fortunately these are preventable fires and the fires that start from fireworks are not accidental, they’re preventable and I think people get confused about the two.
She says another part of that accountability can be financial.
KINDELL: The other thing that we really like to get across to people is that you can be held personally, financially accountable for these fires. If you start a wild land fire there is a high probability that if you are found guilty of starting the fire you are going to pay for the suppression costs of that fire and we’re not talking about a few hundred dollars here, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars sometimes.
Kindell and her team work with local residence and fireworks operators to educate them on the potential hazards to property, orchards, forests and grasslands.
KINDELL: It is a big issue and sometimes I think that people just get caught up in that idea of just having some fun and don’t really realize the impact that it has on not only them but the fruit growers, the farmers, the merchants in these towns where these fires are.
That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
