Bolivar becomes first Firewise Community in area
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BOLIVAR, Tenn. — A West Tennessee fire department goes above and beyond to protect their community from potentially dangerous wildfires. Now they have become the first of their kind to receive the Firewise recognition. “Not often that people can say they are first in anything, but today the city of Bolivar can really say they are the first city in West Tennessee with Firewise recognition,” Bolivar Fire Chief Lynn Price said. The Bolivar Fire Department helped the city of Bolivar to become the first city in the entire state to become Firewise, a program state forestry officials say could save a lot of homes and possibly lives in the future. “Wildfire can strike in any community, and so we want to do anything we can to protect the properties and residents in those areas,” Chief John Kirksey with the Division of Forestry said. Officials say Tennessee averages more than 2,000 wildfires that destroy more than 20,000 acres every year. But Bolivar took a proactive approach by evaluating high-risk areas and developing a community-wide plan. “This is a way to treat the forest fuels, eliminate the leaves and the dead brush that are potentially dangerous,” Kirksey said. Now with this new Firewise label, Chief Price says the community he serves is a little more protected from an unpredictable danger. “It’s always going to be the community. You go back to the community,” Price said. “We just got a real great, tight community, and they get behind the fire department and we get behind them, and we just love doing stuff for the community.”
