An average year can include around 5,500 fires in Colorado. Nearly 99% of these fires are extinguished before the public knows about them. Government officials are predicting an average fire year for the state and are asking for individuals to do their part.
“Never have we been more ready,” Gov. Jared Polis said as he started the press conference on Wednesday from the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield. “Colorado has upped our game on fire preparation. We have more capabilities than ever before in the history of the state.”
The Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control rolled out their prediction for the upcoming year — shifting from previous referenced to a fire season. According to Mike Morgan, CDPFC director, Colorado has experienced a large fire event in every month of the year. What was previously referred to as fire season, during the hottest and driest months of the year, has extended 80 days beyond the average length calculated in the 1970s.
Polis said the state has invested many resources into mitigation efforts, forest management and education to help prevent wildfires in Colorado. He hopes that individuals and communities will do their parts to clean up areas that may pose as a fire risk.
“Future wildfires are not a question of ‘if,’ just a question of when, where and what we are going to do about it,” Polis said.
Fire crews are in the process of training on the state’s recently purchased helicopter named FireHawk. The helicopter is designed for Colorado’s vast terrains and to be flexible in higher altitudes. Once deployed, the helicopter is able to reach all corners of the state within an hour, officials stated. A second helicopter has been purchased and will be delivered to the state in 2025.
Morgan said the biggest part of the plan is to utilize technology to extinguish fires as early as possible. The state plans to work with all levels of fire prevention services to attack the fires as quickly and as aggressively as possible to prevent potential loss. This plan is also expected to allow first responders to get to the fires more quickly.
While the outlook for the year is considered normal, officials warn people that that does not mean there won’t be fires. These predictions indicate that the state has received around a normal amount of precipitation, however, drought conditions still exist. Fire prevention specialists are also concerned about increasing wind events which drive much of the fire activity across the state.
