THE BRUSH DISPOSAL SITE
(Operated by the Oracle Firewise Board and Oracle Fire Dept.)
HOURS & KEY – Current hours of operation are 7am to 5pm, everyday! Local citizens pay a fee of $3.00 per load, and are required to obtain permission to use the site, by checking out a gate key available at the fire station. Please bring exact change.
HOW IT STARTED . . .
The Oracle Brush Disposal program began in the mid to late 1980s. During the early years of the program, Pinal County and the Oracle Volunteer Fire District, provided equipment and volunteer manpower to collect and burn vegetative waste products approximately six times per year. The collection site was at the current location of the Waste Management Transfer Station on East American Avenue.
After the Aspen Fire of 2003, Oracle Fire Department officials decided that the community of Oracle needed to implement a Firewise program. The Oracle Fire Department hosted several public meetings and workshops, and community interest in the Firewise program quickly developed. During those meetings and workshops, local citizens expressed much concern about Oracle's high fire hazard conditions. Homeowners were eager to participate in the new Firewise program in an effort to help their homes survive a catastrophic wildfire. Many of them aggressively began creating defensible/survivable spaces around their homes by removing flammable items such as grass, brush, low hanging tree limbs, etc.
The East American Avenue brush disposal program quickly proved to be inadequate for the large quantities of brush that home owners were now removing from their properties. An alternate site was selected on West American Avenue, and with the help of the Arizona State Land Department, a "right to use" agreement was entered into. Oracle was divided into quadrants and community volunteers staffed the new brush disposal site. Each Saturday people living in one of the selected quadrants were allowed to bring as many loads of brush as they could during that day. The popularity of the Firewise program grew so quickly, that every 4th Saturday simply wasn't enough to accommodate community brush disposal needs. The Oracle Fire Department and the Oracle Firewise Board decided that the brush disposal program should be managed by the fire department. A small fee schedule was adopted to cover the anticipated costs of managing the site.
THE BRUSH BURNINGS . . .
The collected brush is burned approximately 10 times per year. Burning and extinguishing the brush has become a popular method for training new firefighters. Firefighters learn how to properly use various ignition devices, also operating fire engine pumps, deploying hoses, nozzles and providing various methods of water delivery.
Click HERE for more photos of the Brush Disposal Site and our staff in action.
