VIDEO: A public facility in Grand Junction went from housing a fair to a fire crew. The Mesa County Fairgrounds is being used as an incident command post, which is a central location that doesnโt negatively impact the community. Fairgrounds are commonly used as incident command posts because they have amenities like power and internet. Plus, they can be used for long periods of time.
โWe are using it to help the firefighters in the field by working on finance and getting them the supplies and food and other things that they need to make sure that they can fight that fire successfully,โ Emily Ficker, the public information officer for Northern Rockies Incident Team II, said. The Northern Rockies Incident Team II is working on the Turner Gulch Fire. They moved in over the weekend and took command on Sunday evening. Team III sizes can vary from 50-200. This team is currently made up of around 60 crew members from several different agencies.
The incident command post is used by incident commanders and operation staff to plan out each dayโs action on what firefighters should do. Having the space to plan away from the fire line is important. โIt just makes it easier, so youโre not fully dragged into one aspect of the fire. You can be a little bit away from it and look at the whole picture and make better plans,โ Ficker said. The fairgrounds are also used as a supply depot.
