May’s snowstorm has brought unexpected issues to the Colorado Springs Fire Department’s wildfire mitigation efforts. 

Specifically, CSFD’s neighborhood chipping program is experiencing heavy delays as a result of the snowstorm, according to Melissa Hoffman, the program coordinator for wildfire mitigation with the CSFD. 

Currently, the Fire Department is collecting debris and chipping in six neighborhoods: Constellation, Gold Camp, Skyway, Skyway Heights, Stratton and TOSHA. Hoffman said that in 2021, 200 homes in these neighborhoods signed up to take part in the chipping program and this year, 800 homes have signed up. 

“We did not anticipate that,” Hoffman said. “It’s fantastic to see … we’re just a bit slow right now because of it.”

The reason for the massive spike in homes using the chipping program, according to Hoffman, is the May snowstorm.

“Because of the snowstorm, we are seeing a tremendous amount of debris,” Hoffman said. 

While Hoffman said the high turnout has been great to see, it has also resulted in a much longer clear-away process than expected for the chipping program. Hoffman said that normally it would take two weeks for the chipping crew to remove the debris from the six neighborhoods, but because of the high number of homes and the large amount of debris from each home, the crews will have to remain longer than expected. 

“We’re going to be in those neighborhoods another two to three weeks,” Hoffman said. 

For those who wish for their debris to be removed more quickly, Hoffman said that the CSFD recently provided homes with alternative debris removal services. 

The fire mitigation program runs three wood chippers at a time out of the five it owns, with a three-person seasonal crew for each wood chipper. The department doesn’t run all five at a time due to a combination of lack of funding and an inability to find enough workers to operate all five machines. 

Fire Capt. Mike Smaldino said that the crew of nine is actually an increase from 2021’s neighborhood chipping program crew. 

“That’s up from only having six (workers) last year,” Smaldino said. “It (a full crew) wasn’t on the books for this year.”

Hoffman said that the debris being left out longer than anticipated doesn’t pose any additional fire risk to the city. 

Mike Sinchak with the Colorado Springs Fire Department neighborhood chipping program grabs a pile of branches to throw in the chipper in the Skyway neighborhood on Thursday. Between a spike in the number of homes participating in the chipping program and the snowstorm in May, they are heavy delays in cleaning up the debris. 

Parker Seibold, The Gazette

A crew cleans us debris on Pollux Drive in the Skyway neighborhood on Thursday.

Parker Seibold, The Gazette