United States Senator Mark Udall is sponsoring a fire mitigation discussion with Colorado Springs homeowners Wednesday night at Centennial Hall, at 200 South Cascade Avenue.

Through the Catamount Institute and Colorado Springs Come Together, the discussion will be hosted by Jack Cohen, a research scientist with the United States Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station.

Cohen will talk about ways that homeowners can reduce the risk of a fire spreading in their neighborhoods as well as discuss mitigation practices in the wildland urban interface — residential communities in forested areas, such as the Colorado Springs neighborhoods destroyed in the Waldo Canyon fire.

Cohen has been researching wildfires since 1972, and has specifically focused on how wildland urban interface fires occur and how homes in those neighborhoods ignite during a wildfire, according to a news release from Senator Udall’s office.

Senator Udall will not be in attendance but members of his staff will be present.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and will be in the county building.