Beaumont Fire Department’s Wildland Urban Interface Response Team, the Texas A&M Forest Service and other area stakeholders recently completed the collaborative process of developing a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) for the city.

Goals of the plan are to provide for the safety of residents and emergency personnel, limit the number of home destroyed by wildfire, and promote and maintain healthy ecosystems by completing wildfire risk assessments, addressing structural ignitability, promoting wildfire awareness programs and identifying strategically placed hazardous fuel reduction projects. The CWPP also outlines wildfire training and capacity building needs for the fire department.

“Through the process of Developing the city of Beaumont Community Wildfire Protection Plan our eyes were opened to the level of risk that the city of Beaumont is potentially under from uncontrolled wildland fire.” Said District Chief Ben House, Beaumont Fire/Rescue wildland firefighting program manager.  “By implementing the different aspects of the CWPP we will be able to mitigate many of those risks.”

The wildland urban interface (WUI) is where wildland vegetation, or fuels, intermix with infrastructure. During periods of critical fire weather, the arrangement and continuity of fuels and anticipated fire spread creates a challenging environment for suppression and evacuations. Beaumont’s completion of the CWPP outlines wildfire mitigation and prevention actions before a fire occurs.

“Beaumont Fire Department demonstrated initiative and leadership throughout the process.” said Stuart Coombs, WUI Specialist with the Texas A&M Forest Service. “We appreciate their proactive approach to complete the process and look forward to assisting with implementation.”

A CWPP signing ceremony will be held at Beaumont City Hall on August 2, 2016 at 1:30 PM.

For more information about Beaumont’s CWPP and the signing ceremony, please contact

District Chief Scott Wheat
Assistant Fire Marshal
Beaumont Fire/Rescue
409-880-3905
Email

To learn about CWPP’s, Firewise concepts and protecting your community please visit the following website:  http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu/ProtectYourCommunity/