Carson neighborhoods want to join state Fire Safe Council

After last year's devastating Waterfall fire, four Carson City neighborhoods are looking to create local chapters of the Nevada Fire Safe Council, a nonprofit organization created in 1999, the year wildfires scarred more than 1.6 million acres in Northern Nevada.

Residents in the areas of Mexican Dam, Pinion Hills, Kings Canyon and Timberline are scheduled to meet during the last two weeks of April to discuss forming affiliates of the council, in hopes of making their own little corners of the world a little safer.

"The Fire Safe Council will help them get the expertise they need," said Meri McEneny, University of Nevada, Reno Cooperative Extension Waterfall fire grant assistant.

For the most part, McEneny said, the council spreads information about living in a fire environment and how to do it safely. It also helps with hands-on projects.

The state organization steers local chapters toward grants for fire protection projects, and administers them once they're awarded. There are 24 neighborhood council chapters scattered throughout Nevada, one of which is in Clear Creek and another, recently formed chapter, is in the Lakeview area.

Lakeview was singed by the flames that burned 8,800 acres and dozens of buildings in west Carson City last summer. Mexican Dam and Pinion Hills were spared by the fire but Timberline and Kings Canyon weren't so lucky. McEneny says they're not necessarily in the clear this summer, either.

The decimation of native plants in the burn area has opened the way for various invasive weeds, many of which often sprout the year after a fire, dry quickly, and provide fuel for yet another burn. It's not yet clear if that will be the case in Carson City but, McEneny said, "things are going to become more obvious real soon."

Funded by a $155,000 grant from Carson City, UNR Cooperative Extension is helping any residents who think they may not be ready for living in fire country.

Cooperative Extension officials are willing to trek out to a Carson City home, size up how well it's protected and make suggestions on how to make it better.

To get a fire evaluation, McEneny said residents should call the local Cooperative Extension office at 887-2252.

n Contact reporter Cory McConnell at cmcconnell@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.

Now forming

Residents in four Carson City areas are scheduled to meet and discuss becoming part of the Nevada Fire Safe Council.

• Mexican Dam and Pinion Hills residents are scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. April 19 in the Bureau of Land Management office, 5665 Morgan Mill Road.

• Kings Canyon residents are scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. April 20 at the Carson City Library, 900 N. Roop St.

• Timberline-area residents will meet at 6 p.m. April 26 at the UNR Cooperative Extension office, 2621 Northgate Lane, Suite 12.