Fire Awareness Week in Nevada is May 1-7 and Lincoln County Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director Rick Stever wants everyone to take note of it.

Speaking at the county fire board meeting March 21, Stever said all of the counties in the state seem to be becoming more involved in the program, called Living With Fire, and having different things for their communities. He wondered what Lincoln County might do to be more involved.

He said a website, www.LivingWithFire.com, is sponsored in part by the University of Nevada, Reno Cooperative Extension, helping Nevadans live more safely with the threat of wildfires and featuring a number of blogs and articles on the subject.

Board members thought doing something similar to what was done about three years ago in Pioche would be good to do again, but no decision was made on a specific date and place or what the event might entail. He said he might do some type of small event at the new Mt.Wilson station and/or at the Eagle Valley station. In addition, the Panaca Fire District might also be a good central location for an event. Panaca Fire Chief Kerry Lee said he would be in support of the event.

In other news, Stever said he learned when attending the Wildfire Billing Workshop in Carson City recently, the Bureau of Land Management is considering the idea of splitting the cost of wildland fires with those they help.

“For a long time,” he explained, “BLM has covered all the costs of dealing with wildfires, but now they are starting to pass some of those costs onto the other fire districts and private individuals. It depends how much fire is on public land and on private land and who has jurisdiction.”

He said most counties are in favor of the new philosophy of the BLM, is that if a given fire district or individual ordered a crew or equipment from the BLM to come in to help fight a wildfire, that district or individual would pay the BLM for the use. “If you order a helicopter or a fire retardant drop, etc., then you are responsible to pay for it.” He said most of the counties statewide, including Lincoln, have already signed the agreement with the BLM regarding the new policy.