Neighborhoods ask city for help with wildfire preparedness May 24 5:30 p.m.

A representative for Eugene’s neighborhoods will speak at the City Council’s Wildfire Preparedness work session May 24 at 5:30 p.m. You can watch live on YouTube or the City’s website.

Tom Peck, a member of the Friendly Area Neighbors board, will be presenting an overview of Eugene neighborhoods’ past, present, and future wildfire preparedness activities.

Ian Appow of the River Road Community was also elected to represent the wildfire preparedness committee.  

The Oregon Department of Forestry expected 100 persons to respond to the neighborhoods’ outreach for free home assessments. But the outreach campaign — run by volunteers from River Road, Friendly, Laurel Hill Valley, Amazon, Bethel, Churchill, Southeast and Southwest Hills neighborhood associations — drew more than 500 requests.

Eugene neighborhood organizations are now asking for help with the overwhelming need by pledging donations and volunteer time: https://forms.gle/YJJDp28qB4L6ZyfX8

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Volunteers will help train citizens to conduct home wildfire assessments, and donations will support partnerships with private local companies (and the City of Eugene’s highly-praised business liaison, Ed Russo) to provide assessments at a reduced rate for those neighbors who face the most severe immediate threats.

This work will be ongoing and will require government partners. At the Monday night work session, Eugene Springfield Chief Chris Heppel, Deputy Fire Marshal Merrill Harrison, and others will present the latest in wildfire planning.

They will also advocate for a new urban wildfire prevention program.

Designed for the unique needs of western cities, the program would reduce the risk of urban conflagrations that result from large wildfire ember blizzards.

“We hope you will agree that investing in Eugene’s Whole Community will help us mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfire,” the NLC Committee wrote in an email release to interested neighbors.

For more information, email Eug.Fire.Prep.Coalition.