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Highlands Today

Leisure Lake Residents Learn About Firewise Program

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Melissa Yunas, fire mitigation specialist for the Division of Forestry, talks about the dangers of wildfires and making a firewise community during the Leisure Lakes Homeowners Association meeting Monday in Lake Placid.

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By Bill Rettew Jr. | Highlands Today

Published: February 19, 2008

SEBRING — When the flames during a brush fire start licking the roof, it might be too late to save your home.

So the idea is to start early, as about 40 members of the Leisure Lake Homeowner Civic Association learned first-hand Monday.

Firefighters with the Florida Division of Forestry showed the residents how to best protect themselves and their structures from wildfires.

"There's just not enough fire equipment to save every home, so we're asking the community to protect their homes," said speaker Melissa Yunas of the Florida Division of Forestry at the Lake Bishop Park Community Center. "Take a step to educated yourselves – to protect yourselves."

Fire officials told residents about the Firewise Communities USA recognition program, a federal program where participants are grouped by neighborhoods that are deemed most susceptible to wildfires.

Frank Gibbs, senior forest ranger with the Florida Divisions of Forestry, is based in Highlands County.

"(Firewise) should trigger something in their minds," said Gibbs. "We can't be everywhere at once to mitigate hazards. If they'll take these steps themselves, it saves us from putting firefighters in danger."

Placid Lakes Home and Property Owners Association is the only Firewise community so far in the county.

Bill Sayles is the president of Placid Lakes association and helped introduce Firewise to his neighbors after learning about the program in 2003. By making his property safer, Sayles established a ripple effect, which helps to also protect his neighborhood, which became a Firewise Community in 2005.

Sayles uses a leaf blower to remove pine needles and sticks off his roof, allows enough room around his home for a fire truck to navigate, and removed and replaced some of his shrubbery and flowers while creating a "safety net" around his home.

Leisure Lake neighbors Bob Kirk and Donna Leonard both already practice many of the fire-repressing tips presented by Yunas and Gibbs, but said they still would consider trimming a bit of the vegetation from their yards.

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