Gallatin County Emergency Management Services have expanded its wildfire mitigation efforts with three new hires. This summer, the county was able to hire MSU student firefighters to help private properties in the valley become more resilient and resistant to wildfires.
Since 2022, the county has been working on wildfire mitigation on more than one million acres identified within the county as wildland urban interface, or a place where development meets or is intermingled with undeveloped wildland with vegetation that fuels fires.
The county has online resources for homeowners to conduct their own risk assessment. Gallatin County Chief of Emergency Management & Fire Patrick Lonergan noticed a gap for homeowners on lots less than ten acres.
“Our fear, we started seeing is how easy is it going to be to line up contractors to do work, because they are not as interested typically in the smaller activities," Lonergan said.
So the county’s own mitigation crew was launched. The crew is able to perform work at no cost to homeowners from FEMA grants and matching state money. But the program had a slow start .
“We did the first project, maybe two and we were like like man we’re not going to have enough work for this crew and then all of a sudden a neighbor was like hey how do I get that done and then another neighbor and now we’ve got enough neighbors in that subdivision that we don’t have - we’re not going to finish that subdivision this year ” Lonergan said.
The crew has completed about a dozen projects in the valley, but their local work came to halt as they joined a forest service hand crew fighting the Horse Gulch fire near Helena.
"But the other side of that is they’re garnering great experience and they’re helping that community out, and that experience is something that will come back here," Lonergan said.
While the local mitigation crew is away, Lonergan says it’s a great time of year for individuals to get some simple things done around the house.
“Most houses burn down from embers, so our goal is making the house less receptive to catching on fire,” Lonergan said.
Clearing gutters of leaf debris, mowing tall dry grass, and putting wire mesh on any roof vents are recommended first steps.
Gallatin county residents can sign up for community notifications about fires and other emergency notification at Gallatin County Emergency Management website.
