The Nederland Fire Protection District (NFPD) Board of Directors met on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, to review the efforts by firefighters to enforce the Boulder County Stage 2 Fire Restrictions. The Board also discussed the prospect of a joint Mitigation Authority with members of the NFPD together with Timberline Fire Protection District.
NFPD Chief Charlie Schmidtmann provided the Board his monthly report, starting with details on many of the 67 calls of significance that occurred in the district since July 17.
Crews responded to two rollover accidents: one occurring on route 505 on the Eldora side, and the other occurring after midnight near Barker Reservoir. At both scenes, the vehicles were found to be abandoned.
The vehicle off 505 did not have any license plates. The vehicle by Barker Reservoir was still on and in gear when found, with crews searching along the shore all the way to the post office. The crash victim was never found.
Injured and lost hikers were rescued from popular trails such as Hessie and 4th of July, as well as a climber in Boulder Canyon who had injured his ankle.
There were many calls of significance within the Town of Nederland as well, including responses to a patient suffering a stroke, a patient who had fallen in town and had broken their leg, and a customer of a local business who suffered a seizure.
Crews also responded to a flood of several thousand gallons of water at TEENS, Inc.; a gas leak, caused by a dog, in an Old Town residence; and an assault on BCSO deputies at the Nederland Middle-Senior High School.
Since the enactment of Stage 2 Fire Restrictions, firefighters have extinguished a smoldering mulch pile at the sort yard and, in addition to responding to more than 11 calls of illegal campfires, many of which Schmidtmann called “egregious cases,” have also patrolled camping areas to keep the number of illegal campfires down.
Fire Marshal Andrew Joslin, Captain Nick Faes, and others circulated information on the fire restrictions to local businesses, requested local businesses to stop selling firewood, and posted signs on the fire rings at West Magnolia.
Schmidtmann reported that many of the signs posted at West Magnolia were found to be removed or destroyed when crews were responding to calls of illegal campfires. He stated that the campfire situation was creating tension, as BCSO deputies are not issuing citations to those in violation of the fire ban.
The Chief’s report also noted that NFPD crews, including Joslin and Firefighters Larissa Briscombe, Adam Cotner, and Prasun Rovtar, assisted on the Stone Canyon Fire.
Joslin and Schmidtmann also attended the Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) Work Session on Tuesday, August 20, offering their expertise and guidance during a walk-through of three possible emergency egress routes for the Big Springs neighborhood. Both the Marshal and Chief attended the BOT’s meeting on that same night to answer questions from Trustees pertaining to the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).
Joslin presented his monthly report to the Board, which included a review of permitting and inspections conducted, as well as the continued progress on providing the District with Wildland Operations education and planning.
Special event permits have been approved for the Buff Classic taking place on September 8, and the NedNed Trail Fest, a TEENS, Inc. fundraising event to be held on September 14. Joslin also reported that he will be scheduling business inspections along with the District’s three newest Lieutenant Candidates, Mandi and Scott Papich and Bobby Swanson, for training purposes.
Joslin reported that the Wildland Operations job aid, to be used in training and simulated wildland scenarios, had been completed. He gave thanks to “the countless amount of helpful input from a collection of experienced firefighters with an accumulated experience of over 200 years.”
Thoroughly reviewed and edited wildland maps were also completed and have been submitted to a printer, with a plan underway for extensive digital versions of the maps.
The Board discussed Schmidtmann’s proposal to create a joint Mitigation Authority with the Timberline Fire Protection District (TFPD). The Authority would support the tenets within the CWPP by managing and overseeing mitigation efforts for homeowners.
The Authority would consist of its own board, composed of members of both Districts, would carry its own insurance, including logging insurance, and would offer mitigation services for a fee, which would cover the cost of the Authority’s insurance and the salaries of the mitigation staff, who would only be paid when deployed.
“The Fire Department isn’t here to make money,” Schmidtmann continued, addressing concerns about stretching the District’s resources too thin. “The purpose of the department is to protect the citizens, so I want to make sure that we have the right amount of people going out [to mitigate] when the fire risk is very low. But when it’s high they’re here working in District to support firefighters if and when we do have a fire.”
Schmidtmann noted that creating the Authority would be effective in ensuring that the CWPP can be successfully enacted, and added that mitigation work falls under the NFPD’s purview of fire prevention.
The majority of Board members were in agreement that the District should create a joint Mitigation Authority with TFPD. The matter will be discussed further during a future meeting; continue reading The Mountain-Ear for the latest updates.
The Nederland Fire Protection District Board of Directors meets on the third Wednesday of every month. Meetings can be attended online via Microsoft Teams. Their next meeting will be on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, at 7 p.m. For more information go to: https://www.nfpd.org.
