Welcome from the Chief
Welcome to our Virtual Town Hall Website. We are hopeful that through this electronic tool, you will learn more about your fire department and how it serves you. Our objective is to update you regularly through the use of this site on key fire department issues of the day such as our budget, our annual report, new equipment and personnel, and both short and long terms goals for our organization.
Spring Message from the Chief
While spring is the primary forest/wildland fire season on Cape Cod, the fire season is now a year-round reality in many areas, requiring firefighters and residents to be on heightened alert for the threat of forest fire.
Each year, wildland fires consume hundreds of homes in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). Studies show that as many as 80 percent of the homes lost to wildland fires could have been saved if their owners had only followed a few simple fire-safe practices. In addition, wildland fire related civilian deaths occur because people wait too long to leave their home. Leaving late is a growing national problem, as well as a local concern on Cape Cod.
The Mashpee Fire Rescue Department takes every precaution to help protect you and your property from wildland fire. However, the reality is that in a major wildland fire event, there will simply not be enough fire resources or firefighters to defend every home.
Successfully preparing for a wildland fire enables you to take responsibility for protecting yourself, your family and your property. With assistance from the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the National Fire Protection Administration the Ready, Set, Go! Action Guide has been developed to provide the tips and tools you need to prepare for a wildland fire threat, to have situational awareness when a fire starts, and to be ready and willing to leave early when instructed to do so.
Fire is, and always has been, a natural occurrence in the wildland. Cape Cod scrub forest burned periodically long before we built homes here. Wildland fires, fueled by a buildup of dry vegetation and driven by seasonal hot dry winds, are extremely dangerous and difficult to control. Many residents have built homes and landscaped without fully understanding the impact a fire can have on them, and few have adequately prepared their families for a quick evacuation should a wildfire occur.
It’s not a question of if, but rather when, the next major wildland fire will occur. Through advance planning, understanding and preparation, we can all be partners in the wildland fire solution.
http://www.wildlandfirersg.org/