Supervisors pleased to see county taking pro-active role in wildfire planning

The Pinal County Board of Supervisors have directed emergency services to begin preparations for what could be a very active wildfire season.

“The Supervisors have set the direction we should take, and we are running with it,” said Peter Weaver, Emergency Services Manager.

The first measure Pinal County has taken was to meet with local fire districts and departments along with utility companies to hash out details if a wildfire was to break out anywhere in the county.

In the meeting held on Thursday, March 23, Weaver stressed that everyone needs to communicate in the event a fire breaks out. “We need to be on the same page,” Weaver emphasized during the afternoon gathering. “We need to know what you are facing.”

While Pinal County and surrounding areas received an inch or more of rain recently, the moisture wasn’t nearly enough to break the drought cycle the state is going through. Meteorologists are predicting the drying trend will continue over the summer months.

The result, Weaver says, is: “One heck of a fire season.”

Emergency Services Manager Pete Weaver leads a discussion on the upcoming wildfire season.

Cecil Fendley, Chief of the Queen Valley Fire District agrees. “The danger is always there. To us, it’s another fire season. Our main job is to protect the people.”

Representatives from area utility companies said they would be happy to provide maps and grids of their electrical distribution systems throughout Pinal County. The fear for emergency service providers and the county is that active power lines, in or nearby a wildfire, could start more fires if lines are brought down by a blaze. There is a need to communicate accurate GPS coordinates to power companies for them to shut down lines that are in danger.

Another reason to learn the grids, Weaver said, is to know, if the power goes out in the summer, which areas will be affected so that preparations can be made to evacuate people to “cool zones” if the weather is hot.

Addressing the fire districts and departments, Weaver said that the county can provide help, if needed, but they cannot fight fires. “We have provided water trucks in the past with incidents like the Aspen and Oracle Hill fires, but I will warn you that we are not in the business of fighting fires. We leave that to the fire fighting agencies. They are trained to battle blazes; we are not.”