Fire & Safety

2022 Annual meeting Fire Safety presentation

A huge thank you for all of our Fire Safety committee volunteers and to Meg and Adam for their presentation last night. You can find the slides they shared here

Tollgate Medical Emergency Help Line
The Tollgate Good Samaritans (TGS), a subcommittee of the Fire Safety Committee (FSC), are a team of medically trained volunteers who are prepared to assist in the event of a medical emergency while awaiting the arrival of the county first responders.
This is not a substitute for calling 911; always dial 911 first.
435-565-1554 will send your message or text to a team member who will respond as quickly as possible.

Summit County Emergency Alert System

Please visit the Summit County website and sign up for the NEW emergency alert system. This is a reverse 911 program that lets the sheriff and fire departments notify YOU in an emergency that impacts Tollgate Canyon users. If you were signed up for the Code Red system, your information did NOT transfer over and you must sign up for the new system.

Click on link for Summit County Utah Emergency Alerts

Tollgate FIRE Alerts

Text TOLLGATEFIRE to 77222 to opt-in to receive emergency alerts. This list will only be used in an emergency and for a yearly test notification that will be sent in the spring to verify the list is working and up to date.

Text TOLLGATEINFO to 77222 to opt-in to receive informational alerts such as road closures or community events.

{corrected on 5/27/2020 from 55222 to 77222}

Fire Safety:

Pine Meadow and Forest Meadow Ranches are located in the "Wildland/Urban Interface Area." This designation indicates a risk as described in the following, excerpted from the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands website:

Wildfire has been a continuing challenge throughout Utah's history. There are several areas in Utah where there is an extreme danger of wildland-urban interface fire. In fact, any fire over 100 acres threatens some structures due to the increase in development into wildland areas. Over 600 of Utah's communities have been classified "at risk" of wildfire. The safety of the citizens of any community is a shared responsibility between the citizens; the owner, developer or association; and the local, county, state and federal governments. The primary responsibility, however, remains at the citizen/owner and association level.

Watch the full series of "Living with Fire" videos
  Part 1 Wildfire Terminology and Behavior   Part 2 Is your home at risk?
  Part 3 Homeowner Perspective
  Part 4 Defensible Space (Part 1)
  Part 4.2 Defensible Space (Part 2)
Part 5   Fuel Types From the State of Utah on wildland interface areas.

Remember: When the "No Fires" sign is posted at the bottom of Tollgate Canyon, Fire danger is elevated and No Fires are allowed.
In order to educate ourselves, our neighbors and our greater community, a group of Ranch owners have been engaged in fire safety projects for the past two years, starting with a ranch-wide survey of owners' safety concerns and their Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training in 2006. Since that time, they have been active in meeting with County and State officials on strategies to reduce our risk. These have included:

Distribution of Emergency Preparedness Guides to Tollgate owners.
Wildland Fire Plan training with the State of Utah, and formation of a committee to update ours.
Completion of a new Wildland Fire Plan for Tollgate Canyon Evacuation Plan area.
Updated maps to area dispatch and fire departments.
Brought Bryce Boyer, county fire warden, to neighborhood meetings on fire safety.
Coordinated 22 lot assessments for fire safety
Obtained a $150,000 grant from the National Fire Plan for continuing education and fuel reduction.
Continued to schedule fuel reduction projects around the ranch.
Designated helicopter landing zones with Air-Med and Lifeflight for emergency evacuations.
Three of our CERT members went on to get basic Wildland Firefighting certification.
Current Utah Wildfire risk map

IN KIND DOLLARS

To help reduce the amount of fuel for fires, we ask that you bring down trees on your property to the pile at the back of the lower gravel pit parking lot.

All wood should be under 8 inches in diameter.

Once you have done so, please enter the time you spent clearing your property HERE so that we can claim in-kind dollars and further help the community reduce fire risk.

What should owners be doing to reduce the hazard?

Look at this diagram from Summit County for information on defensible spaces and fuel reduction.
Visit www.firewise.org and utahfireinfo.gov for more fire safety information.

While we have accomplished some significant projects, we have a long way to go to feel relatively secure with our fire hazard, and we need the cooperation and participation of Ranch owners to make it happen.

Ongoing Projects From July:

Fuel Reduction projects to continue on the Ranch Starting July 8th 2023
Fuel Reduction Projects
Look here for specific dates and instructions on clearing and stacking brush at the gravel pit

Fire Breaks
- With input from the State Fire Agencies, we will be designating certain roads as fire breaks. This means that we will be having contractors clear deadfall, standing dead and high risk fuels within the right-of-way along some of the roads. This will be done using Federal grant money. Mature, healthy trees will be left untouched except for "limbing up" in some cases. That is, cutting the limbs from the bottom 8 feet or so. It is healthy for the tree, and prevents a ground fire from climbing into the canopy of the trees.
Posting addresses at lots
- This is important for fire and medical crews to effectively navigate our mountain neighborhood.
- Signs should be fire resistant, above snow height, and include your County GIS address. (call the County at 435-336-3145 {corrected 9/14/09} for your official street address)
Repair of road signage on Ranch and clearly marking emergency exits.