CACHE COUNTY – Utah Rep. Jason Thompson (R-Dist. 3) will convene a rescheduled roundtable gathering of local emergency response stakeholders on Friday, Sept. 25.
The Cache County Wildfire Preparedness Roundtable is slated for 12 p.m. in the Community Room B of the Logan Library.
“Wildfire does not recognize municipal or jurisdictions boundaries,” according to Thompson. “Our preparation has to reflect that reality.
“The late July wildfire on Canyon Road showed the tremendous value of capable first responders and agencies working together.”
The freshman state lawmaker has invited municipal leaders, fire chiefs, law enforcement officials, emergency response personnel, dispatch representatives, public works officials and state/federal partners to the Friday morning session.
The roundtable meeting was originally scheduled for Friday, Aug. 28, according to Thompson, but had to be postponed when local fire officials were called away to battle a wildfire in Tremonton.
Thompson says that the Sept. 25 working session will give local and regional partners an opportunity to review lessons from the recent Logan fire, discuss vulnerabilities throughout Cache County and identify practical steps communities and agencies can take to strengthen wildfire preparedness before the next emergency.
The Canyon Road wildfire ignited late on July 31 and spread rapidly through dry grass bordering the Island neighborhood. The wind-driven blaze burned an estimated 30 to 40 acres, forced mass evacuations and damaged structures and vehicles in northeast Logan.
After fire agencies from across Cache Valley rushed to the scene to assist, fast action by those crews managed to hold the flames north of Canyon Road, preventing the fire from entering Logan Canyon.
Topics expected to be discussed during the roundtable gathering include lessons learned from the Logan fire, inter-agency coordination and mutual aid, emergency notifications and evacuation readiness, wildland-urban interface risks, emergency access, water availability, fuel reduction and mitigation projects as well as opportunities for improved regional collaboration.
“It also gives us an opportunity, while the experience is still fresh, to identify what worked, where we can improve and what we can do now to make our communities even better prepared,” Thompson emphasizes.
The roundtable is intended to result in specific next steps, including immediate actions, priority projects, areas requiring regional cooperation and responsibilities for moving those efforts forward.
The Logan Library is located at 285 North Main Street in the downtown area.