Letter: Fire Chief warns against Mount Charleston development

We already have a hotel, lodge, cabins, condominiums, golf course, putting green, miniature golf, ice-skating rink, approved stores, shops and a gas station.

When the volunteer fire department responds to Lee Canyon, which is many times a week in the winter, our residents in Kyle Canyon have no ambulance nor any EMTs to respond to their emergency needs.

We have been on many calls (fires and EMs) to the hotel and the lodge. Highway 157 is notorious for head-on collisions, and we respond when we are available. However, we are only as effective as our availability. Most of the fire department members work in town and can only respond when we are on the mountain.

We have a moral obligation to respond to incidents outside of our fire protection district, which includes all of this newly zoned proposed commercial development.

With this proposed increase in traffic, there is not much question that the rate of incidents will increase dramatically. Las Vegas residents expect the same emergency services here on the mountain that they receive in town, and they are not aware that they might have to wait for up to an hour for a rescue unit -- by the time some accidents are discovered, called in and a response is implemented, it could be longer.

This does not even address the subject of fires and the higher rate of incidents that we will now have to contend with. We have a bottleneck entrance to the residential areas, and this is where they want to build more commercial -- one way in and one way out. God help us.

More development? I hope someone reconsiders the devastating effects these projects will have on our mountain community.

Dennis Lovell Fire chief, Mount Charleston Volunteer Fire Department

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