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The Flagstaff City Council heard a presentation on community wildfire preparedness on Tuesday, Feb. 18, during which leaders of multiple emergency response agencies explained how they’re working to mitigate the risks of a major fire here.

The recent wildfires near Los Angeles were a frequent reference point during the conversation, as were job cuts to the federal land management agencies that normally conduct wildland fire suppression around Flagstaff.

“Top of mind, for a lot of people, is the failure of the water system in Southern California,� Flagstaff Fire Department Chief Mark Gaillard said in his opening remarks, referring to that some fire hydrants stopped functioning during the intense battle against the Palisades Fire.

Gaillard also noted, “You will not see federal partners here today. There are a lot of things going on in the federal government that are uncertain at the moment, but I will tell you that our local partners � they’re absolutely engaged with us, in communications.�

Mass employee terminations at the U.S. Forest Service, on top of Flagstaff’s extraordinarily dry winter this year, have prompted significant community concern about the coming fire season.

Gaillard emphasized that wildfire prevention and response depends on strong partnerships between the city, the county and the Coconino National Forest. Protecting the community, he said, is “a team sport.�

The presentation was structured around what the Flagstaff Fire Department (FFD) calls the “Five Es� of community risk reduction: education, enforcement, engineering, economic incentives and emergency response.

FFD’s Wildland Fire Battalion Chief Paul Oltrogge and Wildland Fire Captain Neil Chapman spoke about the importance of education.

The department’s educational efforts include its Wildland Fire Action Guide, free home and property assessments, and its interactive evacuation zone map, all of which are available through the department’s .

Oltrogge also discussed fire restrictions, which are part of the enforcement component of the department’s approach. The department is already taking part in weekly interagency calls to evaluate the need for fire restrictions, he noted -- which is unusual for February.

Collin Seay, deputy chief of operations for the Flagstaff Police Department (FPD), said FPD has already begun its “Woods Watch� program, which typically doesn’t begin until May or June.

That program involves overflights with an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter to locate camps and campfires in wooded areas. That can facilitate a quick response to unattended fires and helps officials know how many people are residing in those areas should an evacuation be necessary.

Enforcement also includes the wildland urban interface code, Gaillard noted, and the city has been in discussions with the county about developing a version of that code applicable to rural and unincorporated areas of Coconino County.

“Flagstaff has made a significant investment in engineering over the past 30 years,� Gaillard said, moving on to the third component.

That includes prescribed fires and pile burns, vegetation management and forest thinning and improving community wildfire protection plans in the city and the surrounding region.

The presentation on engineering also included more details about Flagstaff’s water system. Lee Williams, operations director for water services, said the system is “quite resilient,� drawing on five sources in different areas and employing backup diesel generators at critical pumping sites. Flagstaff’s fire hydrant system exceeds the recommended minimum flow rate by a factor of four, Williams added.

“It’s a good water supply,� Gaillard said. But, referencing the Los Angeles fires once again, he added, “There isn’t, to my knowledge, a municipal or fire water system developing fire flows sufficient to put out structure after structure after structure going through a community in a conflagration.�

In other words, even the best water supply is not enough on its own to halt a fire of exceptional magnitude -- hence the department’s emphasis on a multipronged prevention strategy.

That includes economic incentives, such as facilitating delivery of state-funded wildfire mitigation grants for landowners to remove hazard trees or make their property more firewise. Those grants are acreage-based and more useful for larger properties than smaller lots, Chapman said.

Finding additional funding streams, Gaillard said, will be a key part of Flagstaff’s future wildfire prevention work.

“It’s gonna be really difficult for a private property owner to, on their own, conduct hardening operations and fuel removal that will protect themselves and their neighbors. And then stringing a couple of those along a street, and now two streets in that neighborhood, that’s what progress is gonna look like, one private-property parcel at a time,� he explained.

Finally, the presentation addressed emergency response capabilities -- and, again, Gaillard circled back to lessons learned from the Los Angeles fires, emphasizing the importance of a comprehensive strategy rather than focusing solely on firefighting.

“There isn’t a place in the United States where you can find more firefighters than in Southern California,� he noted. “There’s not more resources anywhere than there is there.�

Oltrogge added: “We don’t have the ability to treat fire like a battle enemy. We can’t fully rely on suppression. We can’t fully rely on just more resources and just more firefighters.�

Still, Oltrogge said all 90 firefighters in the FFD complete annual training on wildland firefighting.

The department also maintains a dedicated wildland fire module.

Stacy Brechler-Knaggs, the city’s emergency management director, briefly discussed her department’s work on preparedness, continuity of government planning for disasters or emergencies and disaster recovery planning.

Following the presentation, Councilmember Austin Aslan said, “I think this goes a long way to providing some clarity and clearing up some misunderstandings that are out there,� but he also drew attention back to what he called “the elephant in the room�: the absence of any Coconino National Forest personnel.

“It’s very concerning to me that we’re missing our Forest Service brothers and sisters, and I know this concern isn’t isolated,� Aslan said.

"Honestly, chief, how can we claim fire preparedness if we’re missing that whole part of the conversation, if they can’t even come to the meeting tonight to talk to us, to share with us what they have going on, much less allay our fears a little bit and reassure us that those federal resources are there for us when that need comes?� he asked.

Gaillard, in response, said the situation at the federal situation is “evolving on a daily basis.�

“I will tell you that the phone gets answered when we call our partners at the federal level,� he added.

Ambiguity and uncertainty are widespread, he said.

“We don’t have a lot of answers on how that’s going to play out. We certainly agree with your assessment: we need the federal assistance,� Gaillard said.

Councilmember Anthony Garcia echoed Aslan’s concern.

“Are they going to be there when we pick up the phone and the fire’s burning?� he wondered.

Garcia also struck the most somber note of the conversation. Emphasizing the importance of both evacuation readiness and disaster recovery, Garcia said, “Flagstaff has burnt to the ground before, in history. � To think that that’s not going to happen again � to me, would be a fantasy.�

“For the community, I think it’s important for us to be realistic, and understand that when these things happen � that we are ready to move,� he said.

Other points of discussion included firewise planning during redevelopment, improved vulnerability modeling for better understandings of urban fire behavior, communicating fire restrictions or evacuation notices with multifamily housing complexes, emergency alert systems and forest closures. The presentation and subsequent conversation lasted over two hours.

In her remarks at the conclusion of the topic, Mayor Becky Daggett suggested excerpting the portion of the council meeting livestream covering fire preparedness so it could be distributed more widely.

Although that has not happened yet, the full livestream replay is available . The fire preparedness presentation can be viewed beginning approximately 2 hours and 17 minutes into the Feb. 18 recording.

And in closing, Daggett urged members of the public to communicate with their federal representatives about supporting land management agencies and jobs.