BLM donates fire protection vehicle to Kanab City Fire Department

Photo by Ty Gant.

“This is something we do with the local commu­nity,” says Harry Barber, Director of the Paria River District of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, “When we have an extra truck, there’s no need to just get rid of it. It’s one of the ways we can give back to the community: through the fire program. We know it’s going to go to good use; we have a good relation­ship with the local fire crews, and we know we have an excellent fire crew here with Chief Pierson.”

The BLM is donating the fire suppression vehicle, called a “brush truck” in shorthand for its utility in putting out small wildfires, to the Kanab Fire Depart­ment after an upgrade in their fleets replaced the current model.

“The truck has a lot of advantages we don’t currently have,” says Kanab City Fire Chief Brett Pierson, “It’s a smaller truck, so it’s more maneuverable, and can get into and turn in smaller spaces, and it’s staffed with two instead of three or four crew members. It’s a lot easier to staff a vehicle with two, so it is easier to respond to smaller incidents that require a longer stay; for example, if a crew has to stay overnight to monitor … We’re often very close to fires the BLM need to respond to, and a truck like this is easy to staff and get on scene to start man­agement.”

Representatives from both the BLM and Kanab City com­mented on the good working relationship they have, and how fre­quently they are called on to work together on fires. Says Pierson, “It’s a good mutual working relationship with local fire and the BLM. We’ve helped each other out for years and years, it’s been a good relationship.”

BLM and Kanab City officials came together on the morning of July 30 at the BLM office in Kanab to sign finishing paperwork and per­form some last checks on the truck before handing over the keys. Said Barber, “When we can rely on Kanab Fire like we can, this is a good situation for both of us; we know they’ll use the resources right, and we know that when we need them they’ll be right there helping out.”