Following a mild winter in Southwest Colorado, the arrival of spring and summer brings a heightened risk for wildfires in the region – a risk that already has fire crews in Durango and the surrounding communities on edge.
The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center’s latest seasonal assessment, which forecasts drought conditions across the United States, predicts that drought in the region will persist through the summer.
That fact, according to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control, indicates that “fire potential in May will be normal across the entire state, then June will see southwestern Colorado with above-normal potential due to drought and anticipated hot, dry weather.”
Especially for a place like Durango – which sits at the edge of several forests and grasslands and constitutes an urban-wildland interface – drought-fueled wildfires pose a unique risk, one that is especially concerning for Randy Black, fire chief of the Durango Fire Protection District.
“We're obviously very concerned,” Black said. “We have been since January. When we have a winter with a very small amount of snow that we had this past year, that always is concerning for us. It's concerning for the community.”
Black said that following the Los Angeles fires over the winter, he and his department began urging the public to begin working on making their homes and businesses in and around Durango more defensible against wildfires.
By being proactive, Black explained, the community and fire departments would not be scrambling to react in the event of a fire. And should the worst case scenario occur, mitigating fire hazard around houses helps slow the fire’s spread – something that can save time, lives, property and taxpayer dollars.
“When you change the flammability of your property, when you get rid of the pine needles, when you remove the mulch around your property, when you do things to make your house safer, that slows the spread of the fire to the next house,” Black said. “But that's why it's so important to do mitigation on a large-scale project where you're looking at not just an individual property, but the effect that property has on its neighbors.”
Yet even with fire mitigation techniques, Black said, a fire outbreak in an area as large as the DFPD – which covers 325 square miles “from the state line with New Mexico to the top of Coal Bank Pass” and “from about 6,000 feet by the state line, up to over 10,000 feet” – takes time and resources to respond.
“So doing the mitigation work, doing those things to limit the potential spread – that's the key,” he said.
Black said DFPD could use more resources – specifically with funding and infrastructure – to better protect the growing community in Durango.
“When we say, ‘Here's all the stations and here's all the equipment that we have, we're running 6,500 calls a year right now,’ to assume that everything is going to be there in the station and available when a call comes is not realistic,” Black said. “It's more likely that at least one of our stations, and likely two of them, are active on a call, which means we have less capacity to be able to respond to a new call.”
There are a number of solutions to this problem, including building a new fire station in the Three Springs area, which, Black said, would “add capacity to the system. If we have three engines in the city limits right now, adding a fourth would be a 33% increase in capacity that we would be able to provide to the community.”
The only problem is acquiring the funding, either through taxpayer dollars or federal grants.
No matter what, Black said, the DFPD is well prepared to fight fires with what it has. Each of the department’s volunteer and full-time firefighters is trained in wildland firefighting techniques, can respond to major outbreaks quickly, and has the option of contacting other departments from across the state and country if needed.
But, Black said, a large part of keeping the area safe falls on the community. He explained that there are three major ways to do so:
- The first is to sign up for Code Red, a free emergency communication service that alerts recipients to fire danger and evacuation notices, by visiting www.lpcgov.org/services/public_safety/emergency_information.php
- The second is to have a plan in case of a fire evacuation: know how to exit safely, pack a go-bag with essential supplies and first aid, and have a place to go.
- The third, Black said, is to make safe choices – such as not setting off fireworks or leaving campfires unattended this summer, and installing spark arresters on lawn mowers and other power tools – to help prevent fires before they start.
“Be prepared, have a plan and then be safe,” Black said.
