09/22/2026
Guess what 34 of your awesome local and regional community members were up to this weekend? They spent the last 3 days getting trained up so that they can HELP ALL OF US better protect our homes, property and loved ones from catastrophic wildfire! 🔥 🏠 🚒👨🚒📛🔥
This amazing diversity of folks first got trained up in how to conduct home & property fire hazard assessments so that (if you are interested) they could come to YOUR property FOR FREE, conduct an assessment, and provide you with an amazing checklist of tips and tricks you could implement to help protect against wildfire! And a lot of these things are low cost and easy to do!
Attendees also learned a lot about how other catastrophic wildfires around the state and the West have unfolded and spread so quickly (especially in high wind situations) that there is just no way that fire personnel can save every house. So that was quite a wake-up call, realizing that in these situations, the only thing that may save your house is how much effort YOU have put in on the front end to do what you can to make your home and property more fire resistant.
Attendees also learned that these fire protection tips and tricks are NOT just applicable for multi-acre properties and homes out in the middle of the forest! 🌲🌲
Newsflash - as we have all seen in the media the past couple years - catastrophic wildfire can hit urban neighborhoods too! So even if you live in the middle of town on a small piece of property, there are a lot of easy things you can do to help protect your home and property from wildfire.
And thanks to lots of yummy snacks and drinks and lunches provided, community members were STILL enthusiastic and ready for more on Day 3, when we dove into learning more about 🔥 Wildfire Codes 🔥 and how these will soon play more of a role in our daily lives.
Another newsflash - wildfire is seriously on the rise in Colorado, and we are all feeling it in some way - rising insurance costs, dropped insurance, poor air quality, smoke-induced health issues, etc. Attendees learned that because of this, the State of Colorado has taken action and developed a Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code (CWRC). Cities and Counties have the choice of adopting some version of this CWRC State Code OR some version of the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code (IWUIC), and municipalities can tailor it to fit their needs and resources. FYI - the City of Trinidad has already adopted a version of the IWUIC.
What attendees learned through the training, however, is that even though a lot of people are NOT fans of new codes, a lot of the wildfire codes coming down the pipe are things we are ALREADY DOING, or are common sense things we should be doing anyway. And they are primarily focused on things like building new homes, building new additions onto your house, adding NEW things... If you're interested in learning more, contact your local municipality to find out what wildfire codes are relevant for your area.
Whew!!! That was a lot to cover in 3 days, but these amazing community members stuck with it so that they could then turn around and help all of the rest of us learn how to better protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our home-sweet-homes! 🏡 Thank you! ❤️
A huge shoutout to local landowners who let us use their properties to train on, and to the many organizations who made this training possible including Colorado State Forest Service, Fire Adapted Colorado, Colorado Division of Fire Prevention & Control, National Fire Protection Association, and Spanish Peaks Alliance for Wildfire Protection. Also a big shoutout to the many diverse staff from around our local community and regionally who attended this training including Cascade Volunteer Fire Department, Stonewall Fire Protection District, Trinidad Fire Department, Huerfano County OEM, Team Rubicon, North Fork Ranch LOA, Spanish Peaks/Bon Carbo FPD, Fisher's Peak FPD, NRCS/Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Cokedale Volunteer Fire Department, Sentinel Apex Tech, Rocky Ford Fire, Fishers Peak Ranch, Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative, D & H Dirt Work, 3E Fire Marshal Services, Purgatoire Watershed Partnership, and the many amazing community volunteers who came out to learn just because they care and want to help! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! ❤️
