This week, I attended a wildfire-focused community event — a session of the 2025 “Living with Wildfire” Town Hall Series.

The event was presented by the Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD), and representatives from the CSFD Wildfire Mitigation Team, Colorado Springs Police Department, El Paso-Teller County 9-1-1 Authority (Peak Alerts), Colorado Springs Utilities, and Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management were in attendance. Short presentations were given by each entity highlighting different things that community residents can do to prepare for wildfire now. Additionally, each organization had a table set up with flyers and opportunities to learn valuable information about fire risk, preparation, mitigation, and response.
 
CSFD has offered town halls tailored to different parts of the city for quite some time, but I found it really interesting that they have begun holding sessions focused on the neighborhoods adjacent to the eastern side of the town — the prairieland. Have you heard the term “wildland urban interface” or “WUI” before? CSFD shared the term “prairieland urban interface” or “PUI.” This is one I had not heard but, having studied and performed research on wildfire-prone areas impacted by grass fires, I fully support discussing and sharing the idea and risks of living in the PUI.

I’m pleased to report that, since I began this #FirePrepFriday journey with all of you, I have completed nearly every task recommend by the event’s speakers. Meaning, if you’ve prioritized fire prep and worked through the tasks along with me, too, you’re also in a much better position before the next emergency. Way to go!
 
I highly recommend that you find and attend a similar type of event happening in your community. If there isn’t a town hall opportunity, then request an appointment with the local fire department to ask questions about how you can better prepare and mitigate based on where you live. And, who knows — you could end up being interviewed by the local news station after they notice you taking copious notes. Check out the article and video from KOAA News5 Colorado Springs.
 
Does your community hold wildfire-focused educational events? Tell me about them in the Comments.
 
Important Disclaimer: I am not a fire preparedness professional. I am merely sharing my research, opinions, and what I find that applies to my geographic and personal situations in hopes that it will help others. Please make sure that whatever steps and advice you follow are what is best for you

For Week 1 of #FirePrepFriday, I encouraged everyone to follow the social media accounts of local first responders, as well as register for city-, county-, and/or state-level emergency alerts. But do you know what to do when you actually receive an alert urging you to evacuate? Do you know where to go and how to get there? For Week 3, set aside some time to plan what you'll do if you get an evacuation alert.

Before the Evacuation Alert: Know Where to Go
This week, pick at least two routes that get you away from your neighborhood, work, or school and to a safe place. Because it's so dependent on current and local weather conditions (including temperature, humidity, and wind), topography, the state of fuels (for example, dry and dead vegetation versus happy, green plants in super saturated soil), etc., it's not an exact science to predict where a fire will ignite and how it will spread. This means we need to identify a few places where we can evacuate to. I include links at the bottom of this post to help you with this step and identify locations in your area, but examples of questions you'll want to ask yourself include:

• How many routes are available to me if I need to evacuate from home, work, or school? Where are they? Are these roads wide enough to allow space for the drivers that will use it? Do I know these routes well enough that I can drive in smoky, low-visibility conditions on a road with other panicked drivers?
• Does my neighborhood or city have designated shelters to which I can evacuate? If so, can I bring my family, my pets, etc.? What other places can I go to if these shelters are full or unavailable? Do I have a place to go if I cannot return to my residence for a longer period of time?

Once you've identified possible shelter locations and routes, I highly recommend you make paper and digital notes and then practice evacuating.

• Get an up-to-date paper map of your local area. Mark the locations of your home, work, or school, the possible shelters, and evacuation routes. Keep this marked map in your vehicle, Go Bag, work location -- whatever makes the most sense for you.
• Add your home, work, or school, as well as the shelter locations you identified, as pins or "Favorites" in your map app of choice.
  • For Google Maps, you can use these instructions.
  • For Apple Maps, you can use these instructions.
• Practice! Practice driving, bicycling, and walking the routes you identified. Be prepared for any evacuation situation, and make sure your family, pets, friends, and neighbors practice, too. Also, plan what to do in case you are separated from them during an emergency.

How Do You Know When to Go?
When you signed up to receive alerts, hopefully you were prompted to enter an address (home, work, or school). If so, the alerting system will use that address to assign you to a pre-established zone and send notifications to only those community members who are most immediately impacted by a particular emergency event. Each area and alerting system are likely different but, as one example, Colorado's El Paso and Teller Counties offer Peak Alerts. Public safety officials working an emergency incident determine the location that will require an alert, then the 9-1-1 Dispatch Center generates a map to identify who to send alerts to. The City of Colorado Springs has a "Know Your Zone" feature. Emergency managers divided the city into zones, and this helps the Fire and Police Departments better identify affected areas and determine who needs to be evacuated or shelter-in-place. If your area does not offer alerts, and if you live in a Western U.S. state, you can set up alerts in the Watch Duty app (even with the free version). If you're registered with any of these alerting options, you should receive a text or phone call alerting you of the status of a current emergency incident when it occurs near you.

I've seen a number of communities adopt the Ready, Set, Go! (RSG) Program terminology. The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC)-managed RSG Program provides actions to prepare homes and families to be ready for emergencies, illustrates how to be set for wildfire (by being aware of developing conditions and situations that demand immediate action), and offers an action plan that lists key steps that are necessary when it's time to go. The downloadable IAFC Wildland Fire Action Guide includes all of the steps we'll address over time with #FirePrepFriday, to include this week's task of identifying evacuation routes and shelters (for Action Guides in languages besides English, use this link) and writing them down (page 11).  If your alerts include these key terms, you'll have a better idea of what you need to do. Your alerts may also include the words watch versus warning which, at a very basic level, differentiate between "be prepared" versus "take action," respectively. The National Weather Service (NWS) provides more detailed definitions.

Cost: $0 - $$ (depending on the price of purchased paper maps)
Frequency: You should double-check and update evacuation routes, as needed. For example, if a road on your route is shut down because of construction for three months, you definitely want to have another available option. It is also important to check that shelters are still accepting evacuees at least annually.

Are you prepared to go? Let me know in the Comments.

Additional Resources

• Steps and examples for building an emergency evacuation plan:
  • Ready: Evacuation
  • American Red Cross: Disaster Preparedness Plan
  • IAWF: Wildland Fire Action Guide
  • DisasterAssistance.gov: Evacuate or Stay Put
• Information about how to find a shelter location:
  • American Red Cross: Find An Open Shelter and Other Services
    • This site has an interactive map
  • DisasterAssistance.gov: Emergency Shelter
    • To search for a Disaster Recovery Center (DRC), text DRC and your ZIP code to 43362 (Example: DRC 01234) (standard messaging rates apply)
  • FEMA: How do I find an emergency shelter near me?
    • To search for open shelters, text SHELTER and your ZIP code to 43362 (Example: Shelter 01234) (standard messaging rates apply)
  • AidTeam: Finding Local Emergency Shelters
    • I really like this site as it allows you to enter a zip code, pinpoint nearby emergency shelters within a reasonable distance, and then print a map with those shelter locations
• Information about how to find housing after a disaster:
  • USA.gov: How to find housing after a disaster
  • DisasterAssistance.gov: Do you need help after a disaster?

Important Disclaimer: I am not a fire preparedness professional. I am merely sharing my research, opinions, and what I find that applies to my geographic and personal situations in hopes that it will help others. Please make sure that whatever steps and advice you follow are what is best for you.