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Alpine Area Wildfire Protection Coalition “All Fire Days”

Provided by Lincoln County Fuels Mitigation

ALPINE, WYO. – Lincoln County Emergency Management will be participating in a simulated wildfire exercise with several emergency response organizations and land management agencies on May 21, 2022.

The simulation will take place within the Community of Alpine as part of the Alpine Area Wildfire Protection Coalition (AAWPC), “All Fire Days”. The simulation will involve a mock wildfire beginning northeast of the Rees subdivision on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.

This exercise is intended to prepare local response agencies when highly vulnerable communities, such as Rees, are threatened by wildfire. Participating in the exercise with the Alpine Fire District will be, Lincoln County Emergency Management, Caribou-Targhee NF, Bridger-Teton NF, Swan Valley Fire, Thayne VFD and Wyoming State Forestry. In the scenario, the mock fire would ignite grow and spread over private and Forest Service lands and start a mock spot fire within the subdivision. In the simulation other management concerns including communications, damage to structures, evacuations and the loss of the power line will be considered.

Public Information Officers will be available near the event to answer questions, however the public is encouraged to avoid the immediate area of the event.

“The purpose of All Fire Days is to develop joint decision-making relationships and to give us an opportunity to practice critical decision-making skills in a local scenario under less-than-ideal conditions,” said Chief Mike Vogt of the Alpine Fire Department.

“The timing of this exercise was chosen to be pre-fire season and allow us the opportunity to work together before an incident occurs,” said Chief Vogt. Participants will practice developing cost share agreements to fund the suppression effort, as well as devising a strategy for responding to the incident over several jurisdictions.”

“An extremely valuable outcome to this exercise is that we are able to build positive multi-agency relationships and confidence in key decision-making roles in regard to wildland fire,” he said.

“It is always good to have sophisticated exercises like this one where local management agencies can work together ahead of a major incident,” Chief Vogt said. “The work done by our fire mangers amongst multi agencies with our AAWPC group is impressive and we all are able to learn from this cooperative effort,” he said.

May is Wildfire community Preparedness month in the state of Wyoming. It is a national campaign that encourages people and organizations everywhere to come together to take action to raise awareness and reduce wildfire risks. This “All Fire Day” event is what AAWPC is doing as part of Wildfire Preparedness month.

With an anticipated severe fire season this year, AAWPC encourages the citizens in the area to actively reduce fuels around their homes, work to harden their homes against wildfire and to have a Ready, Set, Go! bag ready should a local wildfire occur. For more information on Ready, Set, Go! and home hardening stop by the Alpine Fire Department or contact Lincoln County Emergency Management.

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