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Grand Canyon National Park was awarded $28,000 of Fire Prevention and Education funding in FY 2003. The money allowed them to complete a Wildland Fire Risk Analysis of the park's Wildland-Urban Interface, and to create and manufacture two defensible space interpretive signs.
Structural Fire Protection Specialists, Darrell Willis and Jason Coil, were awarded the contract for the Wildland Fire Risk Analysis. They visited and evaluated the park's South Rim Village and North Rim developed area in spring 2003. The finished document provides a risk assessment summary and recommendations to reduce the threat of wildland and structural fires within the park. It also prescribes vegetation management principles and building construction recommendations to mitigate fire's negative effects. In addition, it provides maps and structural protection plans to be used in the event of a Wildland-Urban Interface fire at Grand Canyon National Park .
The analysis has served as a catalyst to improve the understanding of defensible space concepts and to initiate implementation of recommended actions within the park. A decision was made to limit new housing construction and improvements on existing housing to fire safe materials, and to more actively enforce defensible space standards within park and concession housing areas. Clean-ups and evacuation drills were conducted in three "at risk" South Rim neighborhoods. The park provided tools, trucks and firefighters to help residents remove needles, leaves, and other woody debris from their yards. Each clean-up was followed by an evacuation drill, during which residents reported to Grand Canyon 's Helibase for a barbecue.
The interpretive panels, designed to emphasize poignant examples of fire mitigation measures used at Grand Canyon, will be placed at highly visible locations so that the majority of the park's 5 million annual visitors may view them. The signs will educate park residents and visitors about the benefits of defensible space, and provide direction for those interested in making their home communities more fire safe. The contract for these signs was awarded to Windsor Fireform Graphics in Tumwater, WA . The signs are still being created and will be ready for display in FY 2004. |
