MINERAL COUNTY – FireSafe Montana is looking to establish a fire prevention task force in Mineral County.

According to Jennifer Lamanna, executive director of FireSafe Montana, the task force will work with homeowners and the Mineral County communities. The task force’s main goal will be educating people about fire prevention and the proper way to handle situations where a fire is spreading.

“A task force basically helps organize the different communities to get [fire prevention] going on the ground,” said Lamanna.

Lamanna explained that with how prevalent dry brush is, the risks of another fire like the West Mullan Fire is very real. Her hope is to get a lot of work done on cleanup and safeguards before another fire gets out of control.

Another benefit of the task force and FireSafe Montana’s efforts would make it easier for firefighters to do their job. According to Lamanna, this would also allow fire crews to focus on fighting a fire instead of creating defensible space and fuel mitigation around structures.

“It helps when firefighters don’t have to come and risk their lives doing all the work that hopefully the homeowner would do ahead of time,” said Lamanna.

Lamanna explained the task force is “area dependent” and that its job is whatever the community needs it to be. Some examples mentioned ranged from just teaching community members about fire safety and defensible space concerns to physically going out with teams to clear fuel from around populated areas.

Some task forces have also been known to form councils to work with everything from town to state governments to bring about special legislation and policy regarding fire response procedure.

“I don’t really know what the end [result] will look like, but we’re just getting the process started,” said Lamanna.

At present, FireSafe Montana is just “assisting in getting things going” within Mineral County. Lamanna said most of the decisions are up to the county to decide on how they want to proceed.

Lamanna is looking for people within the Mineral County communities who are interested in helping set up the new task force. Anyone is welcome to help form the task force. Lamanna said that local government works closely with the task force and that, in the past, county commissioners have been involved in their operations.

Once volunteers have come forward, a meeting will be arranged at a later date to discuss what the task force will do and how it will function within the surrounding communities.

Lamanna said it is important for the community to be involved and understand fire safety policies.

“[Communities] already have networks of homeowners that are prepared and know what to do, evacuate,” said Lamanna. “They have this very cohesive, working community and county … They have a community that is resilient when a fire does come.”

On Friday, November 9, FireSafe Montana, in conjunction with the Mineral County Health Department, will be holding a luncheon for all of the county’s volunteer firefighters to thank them for their work on the West Mullan Fire. The event will be held at the Superior Fire Station from 11 am to 1 pm.

One of the event’s goals is to spread awareness of opportunities to help mitigate fire risk and keep firefighters safe. During the event, Pat McKelvey, board president of FireSafe, will speak about the task force and what they can do to help a community. McKelvey was the public information officer in charge of the West Mullan Fire when it burned much of the hillside around Superior.

People interested in joining the task force can contact FireSafe Montana by calling 431-8718 or by emailing execdir@firesafemt.org.