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The Mosca-Hooper and Baca Grande (Colorado) Volunteer Fire Departments shared nearly $12,000 in Rural Fire Assistance funding awarded through Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve. This is the second year in a row that grant proposals for the two fire departments were approved.
Great Sand Dunes National Monument maintains mutual aid agreements with these two local volunteer fire departments (VFDs), responding to fires in adjacent lands and communities and relying on assistance from these VFDs to respond to fires within the monument. At times these fire departments are the only firefighting resources available to help and are the first to arrive. The RFA money will improve their capabilities and accordingly provide improved fire protection for Great Sand Dunes.
The Mosca-Hooper Volunteer Fire Department consists of 24 volunteers who provide protection for 360 square miles. Included in their protection district are lands immediately south and west of monument boundaries plus a number of wildand-urban interface residences. Great Sand Dunes maintains a mutual aid agreement with the department for both wildland and structural fire protection. At the onset of the 3,000 acre Sand Fire in April, 2000, they were the first mutual aid fire department on scene.
The Baca-Grande Volunteer Fire Department
consists of 20 volunteers who provide protection for
900 residents over 17 square miles, all of which is
in a significant wildland-urban interface situation.
This proactive department has aggressively addressed
their situation by seeking wildland fire training, conducting
workshops for residents, preparing a detailed fire management
plan and addressing fuels problems through prescribed
fire and mechanical reduction projects.
The Baca-Grande department and Great Sand Dunes are co-signatories to a multi-agency mutual aid agreement covering Saguache County. When the federal government purchases lands to the west and north of the current monument boundaries, the Baca-Grande development will be an immediate neighbor to our northwest and a vital resource for providing initial attack on future NPS lands. Many of their members have gone out on a number of interagency fires and some have completed advanced training.
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