By TONY ROHRWASSER

This coming Saturday, June 20, at 5 p.m. on the lawn at the South Boundary Fire Station No. 1 in Naples, 20 Stagecoach Road there will be a free barbecue for the residents of the South Boundary Fire District, neighbors and friends.

The South Boundary Firefighters Association is donating their time, burgers and hot dogs for the dinner. The Helping Hands of Naples are also donating baked beans and as always, great desserts.

What is the occasion?

We would like the community to come down, meet their neighbors and listen to a presentation on wildfire preparedness. At 6 p.m. we plan on moving the adults into the station for a short presentation on how you can better prepare your home for the threat of wildfire.

With the upcoming summer season and the already over normal temperatures and very dry conditions, it is more important than ever to prepare our homes and citizens for the possibility that we may one day soon see fire move through our community. We would like to offer information on how you can make everything from major changes to minor improvements that may cost little to nothing but greatly improve the survivability of your home in a fire.

We will also do a short presentation on emergency preparedness kits, trying to let people at least have a good thought on what they may need to take in the event of an evacuation and how to prepare their family members and pets for this possibility.

There will be a short presentation on the South Boundary Fire Protection District, what has been done since forming more than 10 years ago and where we plan on going in the next 10 years.

We will then open the meeting to public input where community members may voice their concerns on issues they feel we as the Fire District should address, and any questions they may have on preparedness for disasters.

Our biggest goal for the evening is to help people to better prepare themselves in the event of a disaster. Many feel that the Fire Department will come to their rescue and take care of everything, when in fact almost all of the responders are volunteers that live within the same communities and have their homes and families to prepare for also.

As a homeowner there are many things that can be done to your own home and property that can help us, the fire department, try to save homes in the event of a fire that threatens many homes.

We will also explain and discuss the roles and responsibilities of all of the different fire agencies in our area such as the Department of Lands and the Forest Service during a major event like this.

Please come down, have a burger and bring the kids if you wish. We will have our “Fire House” Bounce house to help entertain the kids during the presentation.

For more information call the station at (208) 267-8052.

Tony Rohrwasser is the fire chief for South Boundary Fire Protection District.