Updated Jun 12, 2024
The Wildfire danger is now at level 4, VERY HIGH!
During these necessary restrictions, we want to ensure you are well informed and prepared. Please remember the following:
- Limit the use of chainsaws, weed eaters, mowers, and other powered equipment to the morning hours when accidental fires are much less likely to occur, ending work at 10 AM
- A Burn Ban is in effect, and burn permits are suspended. Open fires of any sort are prohibited outdoors, although you can cook outdoors with propane or LPG-fueled appliances.
- Fireworks and the use of incendiary devices are strictly prohibited due to the potentially catastrophic consequences they can cause.
- Welding and the use of oxy-acetylene torches are prohibited anywhere outdoors.
- Target shooting is also prohibited in our district and on State lands.
- Smoking is prohibited outdoors unless you are in a barren area cleared of all flammable vegetation. It is permitted inside a vehicle or building.
- Shorten safety chains while towing trailers or vehicles to prevent accidental roadside fires.
Ruger Ranch has just qualified for national Firewise certification. The same has been achieved in Peeples Valley proper to our south, as well as, the neighboring community inside PV called Buckhorn Legacy. All three are within the PV fire district. At a time when some states, including parts of Arizona, are seeing major insurance companies leave markets or refuse to write new homeowners polices due to rising extreme wild fire risk, our Firewise certification, which must be renewed annually, may just help prevent homeowners from seeing skyrocketing premiums or being dropped by their insurance company altogether.
Recently, a PV resident was told by her insurer that they were either going to drop her insurance or raise her rates to an exorbitantly high rate. However, once the auditor learned of her neighborhood’s Firewise certification, as well as, some pending fuels work funded by a grant awarded in part due to the community’s Firewise status, her insurer not only kept her insurance in place but also did not raise her rates.
In order to maintain Firewise certification, each year our community must complete 1 hour of fuel mitigation per home or the financial equivalent of 1 hour (approximately $30/hour). We currently have about 15 homes which translates into 15 hours or the financial equivalent for the entire Ruger Ranch community. This means just a handful of residents may do enough work each year to cover the entire community! Of course, landowners are encouraged to reduce fuels (e.g., thin forests, brush) and improve fire breaks as well. We are all only as protected as the least lot, home, or road among us.
Please track, record (i.e., photos), and send in your efforts in calendar year 2024 (i.e., time spent, and/or money spent on labor, supplies such as chain saw fuel, etc.) to Weaver Mountains Communities Firewise coordinator, Grey Stafford (see PVFD website link below). As was the case with our initial application, Ruger residents have consistently spent far more to improve our fire prevention conditions, including our roadways, than what is required for our yearly renewal.
Future steps include forming a 501c3 that can apply for fuels mitigation grants from the state and federal government. Maintaining Firewise status will go a long way to qualifying for such funding.
Here are links for more information including how to prepare your homes for fire season:
https://www.nfpa.org/Education-and-Research/Wildfire/Firewise-USA
And be sure to visit the new Peeples Valley Fire Department website:
https://www.peeplesvalleyfire.org
We’ve chosen to live in a rural area and wildfires are always a concern. There are things we each can do to protect our homes. Please visit the Firewise site and see how you can help. Being a Firewise community can save our community and save each of us on insurance cost.
Before burning any cut brush on your property, contact the Peeples Valley Fire Department.