The announcement that the Uintah Basin Interagency Fire Center is being moved to Richfield has many locals deeply worried that local wildland fire response will suffer from the change. Email fliers being distributed state that the Forest Service and BLM failed to make a notification by public notice and is urging locals to reach out to the Governor and leadership of state Forest Service and BLM in opposition of the transfer. The decision to consolidate the fire dispatching system came after an optimization study was performed looking at state resources and efficiencies gained by potentially combining dispatch centers, shares Utah Dispatch Consolidation Project Manager Tracy Dunford. The decision was made that the 5 dispatch centers in the state could be consolidated into 3 without a loss in effective service to any area meaning Vernal and Moab’s service would be moved to another center. “Adjustment to 3 centers will be fairly simple to do because of the technology that is available,” shares Dunford. “The actual resources in the Uintah Basin and the folks on the ground are not moving anywhere. The change will only be who they communicate with, not with the fire staff on hand for suppression, prevention and a PIO for local incidents.”
