New map helps ID wildfire-prone areas of New Bern

March 01--Many New Bern homeowners don't realize they are living in danger zones that might be prone to wildfires.

But a new wildland-urban interface map approved by New Bern aldermen last week could help New Bern firefighters educate homeowners about the risks they face and how to reduce them.

New Bern Fire Marshal Danny Hill told aldermen the fire department staff and N.C. Forestry Service worked on the wildland-urban interface map for two years that will help firefighters target high-risk vegetated areas and show the public the need for buffers zones between their homes and woodlands.

Areas that are most at risk include homes in suburbs close to woods and heavily vegetated areas like Carolina Colours, Craven Forest, the back of Greenbrier, Evans Mills, Pleasant Hills and scattered, less-intense areas throughout the city, Hill said.

The educational aspect can be shared at Neighborhood Watch meetings and homeowner associations in the high-risk communities so property owners can mitigate the problems, Hill said.

"Craven County is one of 18 counties out of the 100 counties (in North Carolina) that is listed by the Forestry Service as a high hazard county for wildland fires," Hill said. "We all think of wildland fires as being out west. That is something we all see on TV."

But more than 50 percent of wildfires occur in the Southern states from Texas to North Carolina, Hill said.

"A lot of those fires are not as intense as we see out west, but never the less they do occur," he said.

Hill said the wildland-urban interface map would help staff focus on areas where fire codes and city ordinances need to be enforced for safety and its educational importance.

Mayor Dana Outlaw said he is concerned about enforcement and does not want residents calling him to say there is a controlled burn taking place in their yards.

Fire Chief Bobby Aster assured the board the map would be used to help firefighters and to educate the public, and by approving the map, the fire department would be eligible for grant funds that could be used for educational purposes.

"The ordinance is already in effect," he said. "If we wanted to write citations, we could have done that years ago."

Aster said they are only talking about a 30-foot buffer from wood lines to homes, something he said he needs to work on at his on residence.

"I can promise you we don't have the manpower, the staffing and really the will or we don't want to write anyone a citation," Aster said. "But that ordinance has been there for years, and the 38 years I've been employed here we have never written a citation ... and I don't anticipate any being written any time soon."

Aldermen approved the wildland-urban interface map unanimously.

Eddie Fitzgerald can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at [email protected].