Today's News

The state Department of Parks and Wildlife has received a number of reports since Dec. 25 of pets being taken by mountain lions in the Hiwan Hills area on Ridge Road, Mossy Rock Lane, Buchanan Drive and Western Court, according to spokesperson Jennifer Churchill.

Four attacks were documented:

• On Dec. 25 at 9:30 p.m., a 40-pound dog was taken from a deck on Ridge Road while reporting parties were watching a movie. After they ran outside yelling, the lion dropped the dog and left, but the dog did not survive.

Evergreen Fire/Rescue inaugurated the search for a new fire chief as of Dec. 15, with the intention of having a leader in place by June 1.

The in-house selection committee recommended at the October meeting that a new chief be hired to replace Garry DeJong, who resigned in August to take a job with the Lewiston Fire Department in Idaho.

In the interim, volunteer firefighter Jeff Ashford, currently the deputy chief of fire operations, was named unpaid statutory chief. Fire marshal Frank Dearborn was named acting district administrator.

After a $1 million overhaul of its radio system, the Evergreen fire department finally will be able to talk to the Clear Creek, Gilpin, Elk Creek and Indian Hills fire departments on the same radio frequency without having to borrow each other's radios.

The money comes from a 2009 federal Urban Area Security Initiative grant of $711,000 and matching funds of $189,000 from the2009 Evergreen Fire Protection District budget. UASI is part of the Homeland Security Department.

People who live in a wildfire-risk zone should create a wide swath of defensible space around their homes to have the best chance of surviving a wildfire, according to the preliminary findings of a recently released study of the Fourmile Canyon fire.

The study concludes that fuel treatments such as creating shaded fuel breaks and thinning trees aren't effective when there is widespread spotting or rampant flying embers landing as far as a mile away and setting trees on fire.