Albemarle Fire Department: prevent fires by switching out mulch landscaping for rocks

One of the purposes of Albemarle County’s Community Advisory Committees (CAC) is to provide a forum for public officials to interact with the public. 

Albemarle Fire Rescue Chief Dan Eggleston attended this week’s meeting of the Places29-Hydraulic CAC to present tips on how to avoid fires this summer. 

“Because we’ve had a number of fires in the community and some concerns around safety, I asked Dan to come and make a presentation,” reported Jack Jouett Supervisor Diantha McKeel at this week’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors.  

Eggleston’s presentation covered outdoor burning safety, grilling safety, and emergency preparedness. 

McKeel said one concern that came up during the meeting is the possibility of mulch fires started when people throw lit cigarettes out of their window.   

“And of course they’re flicked onto mulch beds at businesses along the roads and they start fires which the fire department has to respond to,” McKeel said. “Dan said they are being proactive right now in areas like Pantops and a few other areas where there are businesses along the roads and they have mulch beds and plantings and they’re reaching out and asking whether the business owners would switch out the mulch beds to rock.” 

Abbey Stumpf, Albemarle’s director of communications and public engagement, said there’s no official program but that is an area the Community Risk and Resilience Division has worked on. 

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