With a little help from Smokey Bear, Eagle Scout candidates and Burbank city officials dedicated fire-danger signs on Tuesday at Fire Station 16.
Four Eagle Scout candidates from Troop 209 took on the challenge of building the signs, which rate the risk of fire in an area, for their Eagle Scout project.
The Scouts built the signs to mark the anniversary of last year's Harvard Incident Fire, which in October burned more than 1,100 acres in the Verdugo Mountains above Burbank.
"The signs are for the fires from last year … the fact that we could do something to prevent that from happening again," Scout Ryan Roope, 15, said.
The four signs were installed in areas prone to wildfires, such as Stough Canyon and Wildwood Canyon Park, Ryan said.
It took the Scouts five weeks to build the signs, said Jack Vossler, father to Scout Nick Vossler, 17.
"It was great team-building," Vossler said. "They got into how to finance the project and to work together and how to delegate different tasks. It was a great experience for them."
For their project, the Scouts were able to get materials donated by local hardware stores.
"We went through a couple of different plans," said William Pettijohn-Hernandez, 17. "The signs are designed to weather well."
Burbank Mayor Todd Campbell also came out to help dedicate the signs. He was greeted by a handshake from Smokey Bear.
"I want to personally thank you all," Campbell said to the Scouts. "This will help us prevent forest fires and people who are in the forests will be safe and will enjoy the outdoors."
The fire-danger signs have five ratings that indicate the severity of a fire danger, Vossler said.
The ratings are low, moderate, high, very high and extreme.
It would cost the city about $12,000 to buy fire danger signs if the Scouts hadn't built them for their service project, Burbank Fire Chief Tracy Pansini said.
"The Scouts have embraced this," Pansini said. "It's sense of community and sense of partnering."
Building the signs as a group has also been a bonding experience for the Scouts.
"We definitely clicked together," Scout Nick Vossler said. "We knew what we were doing after the first sign was built. It was a group effort."
The Scouts will keep up with the maintenance of the signs throughout the year, Pansini said.
"Burbank is about youth leaders stepping up and helping the community," Campbell said.
