A television station in Denver, 9News, reports that some firefighters in the state, especially volunteers, do not have the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce their risks when fighting fires.
A bill recently passed by the legislature that appropriates $5 million to help provide the gear is waiting on the Governor’s desk for a signature.
A 9News video on YouTube has more details.
The additional funding will most likely address PPE for all types of fires, including self contained breathing apparatus for hazardous material incidents and structure and vehicle fires. As Wildfire Today reported December 22, 2021, a recent survey conducted by the NFPA asked 26,000 fire departments of all sizes about their readiness and capability for suppressing wildland fires. Here are three of the questions.
Colorado, to a great extent, is in the wildland firefighting stone age. The County Sheriffs still have primary jurisdiction on all non-fed lands (an absurd and dangerous business model in 2022). The volunteer depts are in severe decay from ancient funding mechanisms and can no longer recruit and maintain volunteers.
Even USFS Region 2 is notoriously mismanaged and far behind the curve of every other region. R2 is horrendously underfunded and exceedingly top heavy in it’s management. Any time they do get appropriated funds they create new upper management positions, feather their own nests and then the Forests and Districts are left with stems and seeds. It’s really quite sad and shocking how retrogressive the R2 RO is with it’s thinking and fiduciary responsibilities.
Many of us have been speaking about the myriad ways in which our RO will squander and mismanage the impending infrastructure dollars headed their way. There is very little trust that these funds will benefit our worn out, poverty-line firefighters OR the landscapes in which they were directed to improve.
Is this related to the mass resignation a few weeks ago?