Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company
By BIANCA PRIETO
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Gov. Bill Owens signed an executive order Wednesday allocating $2 million to the State Forest Service for fighting wildfires this season.
The state money is in addition to the more than $350,000 distributed in February.
Wildfires have already scorched 3,000 more acres in Colorado this year than in all of 2005, and fire experts are predicting near-record-setting damage.
Colorado will be prepared this fire season, the governor said.
This year, three single-engine air tankers and 10 fire engines will be available to battle Colorado blazes. Helicopters from the Colorado National Guard and inmate firefighting crews from the Department of Corrections also will be available.
A Senate bill making its way through the state legislature would create a Wildfire Preparedness Fund, giving the state emergency money for fighting fires and allowing Colorado to provide mutual support to other states during a fire.
Unlike years past, when wildfires burned in the mountains and forested areas, this year officials expect the highest danger to be east of the Continental Divide, including the Front Range, and in the lower one-third of the state, Owens said.
Owens asked the public to heed high fire-danger warnings, and not start fires, which many times are accidentally caused by people.
“Colorado’s south is more at risk this summer,” he said. “We have the potential for human and property damage.”
Below-average precipitation, hotter and dryer weather will play a significant role in fire danger.
The state’s most recent blaze charred 1,800 acres in Pueblo County on Monday, forcing the evacuation of a strip mall and briefly closing a highway. The largest fire this year started March 1, in Yuma County, when 23,000 acres were burned, said Larry Helmerick, fire information officer for the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.
“Two-thousand and two is still the record year, but we are comparing the start of this year to be worse than 2000 in some parts of the state,” Helmerick said.
If the state continues to receive little precipitation, the fire season could become comparable with 2002, when nearly 620,000 acres burned across the state, he said.
Biggest blazes so far
Colorado’s largest fires in 2006
Fire Date County Acres Cause
Yuma March 1 Yuma 23,000 Human
Mauricio Jan. 6 Huerfano 3,825 Human Canyon
Plainview Jan. 10 Jefferson 2,700 Human
El Paso April 17 El Paso 1,800 Under investigation
Rocky Flats April 2 Jefferson 1,600 Human
Yearly total acres burned:
* 2006 44,052*
* 2005 41,048
* 2004 35,303
* 2003 43,858
* 2002 619,029
* 2001 62,854
* 2000 171,048
* As Of April 19, 2006. Includes More Than 70 Smaller Fires Not Listed Here. Source: Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center