The Gazette
BLACK FOREST, Colo. — The trail leading to the cause of the Black Forest fire has officially gone cold. After more than a year of investigation, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday that how the state’s most destructive fire started remains a mystery.
“We don’t have any further leads,” Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Greg White said. “Until we get additional information, then it is technically considered a cold case.”
The Black Forest fire ignited June 11, 2013, and went on to consume nearly 500 homes and burn 14,280 acres in a matter of days. The fire claimed two lives - those of Marc and Robin Herklotz - and it became the second county wildfire-turned-homicide investigation involving federal, state and local detectives.
The Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fire investigations are perhaps the highest-profile cold cases in El Paso County, each with a common thread of mystery. No agency has been able to pin down the exact cause of either fire, although both are believed to have been human-caused.
The Waldo Canyon fire erupted almost a year before Black Forest on June 23, 2012, and incinerated 347 homes and also killed two people.
The summer of 2012 saw dozens of arson-caused fires in El Paso and Teller counties - authorities scrambled to extinguish more than 20 human-caused fires in Teller in a matter of weeks. The culprit connected to those blazes was never captured or identified.
As with all homicide investigations, more information about either fire’s cause will not be released before the cases are solved, White said. A statute of limitations, which requires that information about a case be released after a certain time period, does not apply to homicides, White added.
The one indisputable fact about the Black Forest fire is that it was human-caused. Still, investigators appear baffled because the origin of the fire is not readily accessible from a roadway, which would have allowed an easy escape.
Investigators found “metallic particles” near the origin and said they “could have been the source of ignition.” But the study of the particles was not conclusive.
The Sheriff’s Office confiscated all equipment with a combustible engine from at least one neighboring property in June. That property owner, Cynthia Balch, got her equipment back Oct. 30, White said.
Investigators did conclude that the origin of the fire was in a “wooded draw with no man-made structures or utilities in the immediate vicinity, ruling out power lines, railroad activity, a gas leak or any other typical source with a fixed location.”
There were no lightning strikes in the vicinity - the closest was 3 miles away. There also was no mulch or hay, and all natural causes were ruled out.
Temperatures were a searing 95 degrees the day the Black Forest fire ignited in the area of Shoup Road and Colorado 83. It drew fire crews from all over the state and cost ?$9.2 million to fight. The investigation into the fire started within 24 hours, with officers looking into a possible criminal element.
Investigators studied fire indicators and behavior. They interviewed responders and other witnesses and conducted a forensic examination of any related physical evidence. The team was formed with experts in wildland fire investigations and included members from the Forest Service, Aurora Fire Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
The team looked at burn patterns, “freezing” of vegetation in windblown positions and other fire artifacts that are used to backtrack the progression of the fire to the area where it originated. About 233 indicators were identified and cataloged.
They looked at photos and videos that helped define the boundaries of the fire. Investigators received numerous tips from the public and followed up on 244 leads.
“Unfortunately none provided definitive evidence of how the fire started or who was responsible,” the report says.
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