Firewise USA

Mesa Cortina and Cortina Ridge community has been invited to participate in the first ever Mock Wildfire Evacuation Drill ever sponsored by Summit Fire & EMS, our local fire department. 

Here is what will happen at 11 am on April 26. Everyone in our neighborhood will receive a text from Summit County Alert telling you that the Drill has been initiated, that it is just an exercise, but if you choose to participate, you now have 45 minutes to pack up and evacuate, meeting at Summit Fire & EMS Station 10, 26300 Blue River Parkway. 

The fire department wants you to literally pack your car with the valuable items that you would want to take with you in an actual wildfire, including your pets. Then “evacuate” as soon as you are ready. (Note: If you have very fragile or very valuable items that you would grab in an evacuation, please just use an empty box or even a piece of paper as a placeholder. Nobody wants you potentially damaging granny's china for an exercise).

By noon, we'll have everyone gathered at our local fire station for a cookout and a debriefing. We will compare notes on what we learned. How long did it take you? What did you forget to grab? What were the considerations? You'll be done by 1:00 pm! 

Summit Fire is planning to invite local and Denver media to come along, as the fire department believes that a lot of people can learn from your experience. But, you are not obligated to talk with any reporters.

Since this is just an exercise, we want to emphasize safety above all. There is no need to be in a hurry, even if you're running a few minutes behind. Participants should follow all traffic laws and act responsibly throughout the event. We understand that there's a certain artificiality to this — heck, you even know the day and time of the "wildfire" — but we know that we'll still all learn from the experience. In the run-up to the event, Summit Fire will share tips and suggestions with our community through our Firewise email; such as a sample list of things you might want to grab, as well as things you might want to have in an evacuation kit (or Go Bag) that you keep in your vehicles at all times.

Please click here to confirm your participation. 

If you haven’t already, please sign up for Summit County Alert at www.scalert.org.

Join us in assisting our neighbors on fire mitigation projects in Mesa Cortina and Cortina Ridge.

Location: 316 Royal Redbird

RSVP

Please RSVP to mesacortinafirewise@gmail.com with your phone number, if you can volunteer in any capacity. 

No experience necessary. You do not need to have any specific tools or skills to be a useful volunteer. Work as hard or as little as you want. Our goal is to educate everyone about how best to mitigate our properties for better defense against wildfires. We will be working in our yards raking, cleaning, pruning and other yard work as well as making plans for future work.

Tools

Let us know what tools you can bring. Do you have rakes, leaf blowers, weedwhackers, garden clippers, loppers, shovels, etc.? 

After Party - Lunch

Our HOA will be providing lunch for all volunteers on our Action Day. Volunteers do not need to live in the neighborhood. Bring your friends and kids are welcome too! We will have jobs for everyone.

Protect your home and community from the growing threat of wildfires by joining the Firewise USA® initiative! The Mesa Cortina Firewise Committee is committed to helping homeowners reduce wildfire risks in the following ways:

• We can evaluate your home and provide suggestions to create a Firewise property through defensible space and using home-hardening strategies
• Provide more educational resources
• Help our neighborhood obtain County Grants available for tree mitigation and removal
• We have upcoming community events to help—including a community Action Day on July 12 and preparing for County Chipping Week from July 21-25

Now is the time to take action. Learn how small, cost-effective changes can make a big impact in safeguarding your property and keeping our neighborhood wildfire resilient. Contact our community Firewise team at mesacortinafirewise@gmail.com.