Latest news with #HaroldSmethills
Business Wire
27-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Colorado Community, Sterling Ranch, Earns Class 1 Fire Protection Rating
STERLING RANCH, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sterling Ranch, Colorado's 21st century master planned community with 2,400 homes on 3,400 acres, is proud to announce that it has achieved an ISO Class 1 Fire Protection Rating from the Insurance Services Office (ISO). ISO is an organization providing data, analytics and tools to the property and casualty insurance industry ( The rating indicates the highest level of fire protection by a community, providing homeowners with lower insurance premiums. By making fire mitigation a priority, Sterling Ranch is protecting homeowners and helping them to pay lower insurance premiums. Share "With the risk of wildfires being a real and increasing threat to homeowners throughout Colorado and the Western United States, Sterling Ranch made fire mitigation a priority in our community and for our homeowners," said Harold Smethills of the Sterling Ranch Development Company. "We continue to implement plans to protect our homeowners from wildfires and as an added result pay lower insurance premiums." Some of the fire mitigation measures Sterling Ranch has put into place include: -- Heavy equipment operators are on call to create fire breaks in open spaces bordering residential areas, if necessary. -- Over one million gallons of water at a minimum is being stored in water tanks on the Sterling Ranch property to battle any fires that might spark-up. -- Approximately 200-head of cattle move between grassy areas to graze on potentially volatile grass areas that serve as fuel as they fertilize and aerate the soil. -- Attractively designed concrete fencing is used in place of wooden fences. -- The community is adjacent to Douglas County Colorado's firefighting helicopter pad. -- Residents are consistently updated, and Sterling Ranch has an active communication system in place to keep residents informed. The community also shares insight and information with residents on how they should personally prepare, including landscaping tips such as removing debris and vegetation; home maintenance including the use of flame-resistant materials; preparing family and loved ones for the possibility of a wildfire and having a plan in place; connecting with local emergency notification systems. More information regarding Sterling Ranch, the top selling community in Colorado and among the Top 50 Master Planned Communities in the nation, is available at
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Douglas County community builds around wildfire prevention
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — Dry, windy weather is just one reason a new community near Chatfield State Park is being built around wildfire prevention. The Sterling Ranch community sits about a half hour away from Denver in Douglas County. View the latest Weather Alerts in Denver and across Colorado on FOX31 'It was originally a cattle ranch,' Sterling Ranch Founder Harold Smethills said. 'It was the Sterling family Ranch that started in the 1860s.' Today, Harold and his wife Diane are developing a community that's three and a half miles long, two miles wide, with a focus on Western lifestyle and fire prevention. 'Our family is third-generation Coloradans, Colorado has wildfires,' Smethills said. 'The best way to prevent a fire wildfire isn't to fight. It is to prevent it in the first place.' Cattle are one part of fire prevention for the community. 'We have about 150 head out here right now, and these cows will move around,' Sterling Ranch Community Authority Board General Manager Gary Debus said. 'They've got several ways that they process the feed and the forage, including their hoof prints in the soil, that they catch little droplets of water, you know, instead of having a runoff.' Next, more than three million gallons of water are stored in water tanks on the Sterling Ranch property. Hot spring weather raises concerns about Colorado's fire danger 'So over here you see a tank, there's 1.2 million gallons in that tank and there's a bigger one twice that size,' Smethills pointed out. 'So, if there were a fire, we can deliver at least a million gallons immediately to fight it.' Jessica Gottschalk, director of resident support for Sterling Ranch, told FOX31 that walking trails and paths have six-foot beauty bands designed to help prevent fire spread. She says they hold landscape classes for those who build in the community to educate residents on fire-preventative landscaping options. 'It's the plant material, it's the fencing,' Gottschalk said. 'We require concrete split rail-fencing on the perimeters of the houses so you don't have that match stick fire effect.' Sterling Ranch residents are also told to prepare, in part, by knowing what to take with them if they ever had to evacuate their homes. They call it the six Ps of evacuation: People and pets Prescriptions, vitamins and eyeglasses Papers, phone numbers and important documents Personal computers, hard drives and disks Priceless items, pictures, keepsakes 'Plastic' (credit card, ATM card) and cash All Colorado homeowners need to be fire-ready and fire-weather-aware. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
