SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – With the high risk of wildfires given New Mexico’s dry, warm winter the city of Santa Fe is getting proactive by helping residents take steps to prevent fires around their homes.
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For 20 years, Porfirio Chavarria, who is the Santa Fe Fire Department’s Wildland-Interface Specialist, has been going into Santa Fe communities to educate people about the dangers of fire around their homes. “A normal day, we’re doing a lot of home assessments right now so that’s me driving to property owners’ houses, walking with them around their house, explaining fire behavior,” said Porfirio.
He helps identify hazards that are susceptible to catching embers. “Letting them know hey you need to remove this tree, or hey there’s this wood pile right there that you probably shouldn’t have next to your house maybe its things like welcome mats, patio cushions can start from embers,” said Porfirio.
His process involves using different colored ribbons, green means just removing low-hanging branches and there is also pink. “I’m marking trees to remove with pink ribbon and that’s identifying them later to take trees out.”
As for the cleanup, the city of Santa Fe partners with groups like the Forest Stewards Guild. “To come out to private residences or communities like this one to help folks reduce their wildfire risk and then we have a cost share program to help pay for some of that implementation and actually make that work happen on the ground,” said Rachel Bean, a project manager with the Forest Stewards Guild.
The homeowner’s association of Loma Encantada took part in the process, and they say the more neighbors getting on board, the better. “One of the things that is important to the committee in organizing this is getting the neighbors involved, inviting them to walk with Porfirio as they’re walking around the land so that we can all learn and understand what we can do to protect our property,” said Kristie Zamrazil, Loma Encantada resident.
The city of Santa Fe encourages residents to sign up for emergency alerts, so they can find out right away if there’s a fire in the region. The link to that is here.