by 
Firewise members Brian Kirkpatrick and Kevin Armbrust.
By Holt Bodinson
Co-Chair, Oracle Firewise Board
If you live in Oracle, own your home, live on one acre or more and are plagued by dense, fire prone vegetation around your house, you may qualify for a new, cost-free, fuel reduction program being administered by the Oracle Fire Department and the Oracle Firewise Board.
You might have noticed white “Wildland Fire Crew” trucks and suited-up firefighters cutting trees and chipping brush on lots bordering the National Forest recently. That’s a cooperative program with the Arizona Department of Corrections, coordinated by the Arizona State Forestry Division and the Oracle Fire Department.
On the other side of that Oracle/National Forest boundary, the US Forest Service has been actively reducing brush as well using heavy, self-propelled, chipping and crushing machines.
The purpose of this joint effort is to create a vital buffer zone around the perimeter of Oracle that hopefully will slow the progress of any future wild fires threatening the community.
Oracle’s Firewise, property fuel reduction program is now being extended and expanded for qualified homeowners throughout the community as a result of fresh grant monies being approved last month by our Pinal County Board of Supervisors.
Applications for the cost-free program are currently available from the Oracle Fire Department. The application asks for information about the vegetation and the topography of the residential lot and whether it is accessible by trucks. The focus of the fuel reduction program will be on chipping dense brush, trimming trees and selectively cutting trees in an area limited to 200 feet around the residence. Stumps, bear grass or man-made materials will not be removed.
Once the application is submitted, the applicant’s property will then be inspected and evaluated by a certified Oracle Firewise assessor and submitted to a review committee for final consideration. The application is brief, and the review process streamlined. Properties approved will be scheduled for treatment as soon as possible, based on the availability of the Florence-based and Tucson-based Wildland fire crews.
In the meantime, Oracle property owners are urged to use the community’s brush dump, which is open daily and will be open for free Saturday, Oct. 25 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., to request a Firewise property evaluation and to stay informed by visiting the Oracle Fire Department’s excellent and timely web site at www.oraclefire.org.
There are news or informational items frequently written by staff or submitted to the Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner, Superior Sun, Pinal Nugget or Oracle Towne Crier for inclusion in our print or digital products. These items are not credited with an author.
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