Fire safety major theme of 23rd Annual Lake Tahoe Summit

The 23rd Annual Lake Tahoe Summit brings together local, state and federal leaders to discuss how to protect and preserve the Lake Tahoe area. A major theme for this year's event is fire safety and mitigation.

The Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team issued its Forest Action Plan to help keep forests, communities and visitors safe.

"We've made really accelerated progress in the last couple of years and I think what's exciting for forest managers and fire chiefs is we're now close to our goal point which would be the vulnerable areas that are immediately adjacent to structures," Michael Schwartz, fire chief for North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection, says.

In recent years, California has experienced some of the most deadly wildfires, but Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto says Nevada faces unique challenges of its own.

"What you see in California is a lot of forest fires right? What we have here are range land fires and what people don't realize is for the last several years there's been more range land fires than forest fires," Cortez Masto says.

Regional and state leaders agree that this has to be a continued effort on all levels.

"We are working together better than anyone else in the world I would say as far as working together to efficiently treat these lands and make it safe for people to live as well as embracing technology that's going to expedite that and if there is an emergency provide safe evacuation routes out of the basin," Schwartz says.

The summit begins at 9AM in South Lake Tahoe at Valhalla Tahoe and is free to attend.