As Snow Piles Up In The High Country, So Do Safety Concerns
FRISCO, Colo. (CBS4) – There is so much snow piling up in the mountains real safety concerns are mounting and some communities are starting to wonder about what happens when they get more?
The snow has piled so high, much earlier than in the past years, and there's some safety concerns because hundreds of fire hydrants cannot be accessed.
Hydrants in Frisco are already about 4 feet off the ground, but with so much snow this winter they are covered. Crews such as one from the Lake Dillon Fire Department can only get to a few dozen every day.
"The thing is we've got about 2,000 fire hydrants in our district, so while our crews are trying to shovel out some of them, they're not going to get to every one of them after every storm," a firefighter said.
"If we do have an incident it's going to take us 5 minutes or more, and that's time we could have spent inside fighting the fire or more," Lt. Kevin Skaer with the Lake Dillon Fire Department said.
Steve Lipsher with the fire department says they encourage residents to shovel out fire hydrants around their home to help out.
"Just take the initiative to go out there and dig around your hydrant and dig us some access to your hydrant," Skaer asid.
The fire department isn't the only group having an issue. The Town of Frisco Public Works Department has been clearing snow nearly around the clock lately and snow storage areas are filling up.
"We exceeded over 200 loads of snow just on the Main Street core area of town in one day. That's record breaking stuff you know," said Rick Higgins, Frisco Public Works Assistant Director. "Right now we're probably at every bit of 70 percent of capacity. As a matter of fact we're starting to use areas we haven't used in three or four years."
The historically snowiest months are still ahead.
Frisco is going to have a meeting next week to decide what to do next if all their storage lots fill.