Learn to Protect Your Home from Fire at PEEC Talk

Las Conchas Fire. Courtesy/PEEC

PEEC News:

Learn how to protect your home from wildfires, and take measures to prevent house fires, in a free presentation at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 14 at the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC). This event is free to attend, and no advance registration is required.

Fire Prevention and Outreach Program Manager for the N.M. State Forestry Division Dan Ware will talk about how New Mexico residents can prepare themselves for the upcoming wildfire season. Van Leimer of the Los Alamos Fire Department will discuss general fire safety measures that can be taken to prevent fires.

Wildfires have become an eventuality across the state, and there are many programs New Mexico residents can take part in to be as prepared as possible. Ware will talk about Firewise and Ready, Set, Go!, two programs which are coordinated by New Mexico State Forestry and are easily adapted by residents and communities. Ware will also give a brief look at the upcoming season and the potential for wildfires across New Mexico.

Leimer will call upon his years of experience as a firefighter to talk about general fire safety in the home, and what one can do to prevent fires as well as how one can be prepared in the event of a home fire. Topics will include smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, escape plans, being prepared for fire, and fire statistics.

Ware serves as Fire Information Officer for the State of New Mexico. He coordinates the Firewise Communities and Ready, Set, Go! programs for the State, as well as the Forestry Division’s environmental and fire education programs. A resident of New Mexico since 1991, Ware worked in radio and television as well as public and government relations for AAA New Mexico and the University of New Mexico. He is a graduate of Eastern New Mexico University and lives in Albuquerque.

Leimer was raised in the Texas panhandle. In 2003, he wanted to live in a ski resort community, so he applied for a summer job at the Red River Fire Department. After receiving training as a wildland firefighter, the Red River Fire Department developed a Type 2 IA hand crew that responded to fires for the Taos Zone. He worked on the fuel mitigation and continued to work on the wildland fire and EMS crews for Red River until 2008.

At that time, Leimer took a job as an industrial firefighter for a refinery in Bloomfield, N.M. and then attended Texas A&M for his industrial fire certification.

He went through the Los Alamos Fire Dept. Fire Academy in 2009, and since then, Leimer has been actively participating in EMS and the wildland program for LAFD. He participated in the Las Conchas Fire and has subsequently become more active in the wildland fire mitigation.

For more information about this and other programs at PEEC, visit www.PajaritoEEC.org, email Programs@PajaritoEEC.org, or call 505.662.0460.

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