SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane firefighters and city officials are getting ready for fire season and want you to be prepared as well.
When the wildfires tore through Palisades, California, one of the issues was a lack of water flow to fire hydrants.
Fire crews in Spokane are working to make sure the same issue doesn’t arise here.
Currently, the City of Spokane has 105 million gallons of water stored.
“We have three new reservoirs either recently completed, or under construction right now, to increase the capacity for fire storage,” said Kirstin Davis from Spokane Public Works Department.
The city is also increasing the number of backup generators to move water through the city in case the power were to go out.
“If we don’t have power to our pumps and our booster stations, then we need a backup source for that. So, it’s really about redundancy and making sure that if a plan doesn’t work, we have a ‘plan B’ and can take care of things that are going to continue to provide a water source,” Davis said.
In addition to having enough water, firefighters said it is equally important as preventing a fire from sparking in the first place.
“It’s the idea that you should be doing preventative work before the fire happens, which is going to be a lot more productive,” said Wildland Resource Planner, Nick Jeffries.
He said a good place to start is on the outside of your home.
“You can clean the needle cast off your roof and out of your gutters. You can put landscaping materials that are lean, clean and green and are fire resistant,” he said.
To request a free wildfire risk assessment and consultation from a wildfire expert, visit wildfireready.dnr.wa.gov.
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