Brief by Central Staff
Wildfires – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Two of the worst wildfires in Colorado’s history started on the eastern edge of Central Colorado.
As we went to press, the Hayman Fire had spread across 87,000 acres, making it the biggest fire in Colorado history (although, as Allen Best explains in an article on page 49, our pre-1960s fire history is rather sketchy).
It started with an illegal campfire on June 8 near Lake George in Park County, and strong winds were pushing it northeast toward metro Denver.
What may be the most destructive wildfire started on June 2 when a charcoal grill tipped over in the dry woodlands between Cañon City and Westcliffe. By the time it was finally extinguished on June 7, it had destroyed at least 88 homes, along with about 100 outbuildings, and scorched nearly 4,000 acres of piñon-juniper forest.
Total damage from the Iron Mountain Fire was estimated at more than $7 million, and fire-fighting costs might reach nearly $1 million.
Colorado hasn’t seen a month with average or above-average precipitation since last August. This spring has been hot (record-setting temperatures all over the state) and windy, thereby aggravating the fire danger.
All those were factors in the Iron Mountain Fire, which spread quickly after it started on a Sunday morning until a Tuesday thunderstorm — with rain and cooler temperatures — enabled firefighters to gain some control.
That Monday, more than 300 firefighters were at work, ranging from local volunteers from the Deer Mountain Fire Protection District to a U.S. Forest Service “Type I Great Basin Team.”
The area was mostly private land, subdivided into lots that ranged from 2 to 35+ acres, from the Cody Park Church northeasterly to Parkdale at the west end of the Royal Gorge. Affected subdivisions included Cody Park, Glen Vista, Iron Mountain Wilderness, and Colorado Acres, and the Copper Gulch Store was burned.
As the fire spread quickly that Sunday, residents were evacuated — many to an aid center in Cotopaxi — before being allowed to return home — assuming their homes remained. The fire did not sweep everything in its path; many homes survived, thanks to brush-clearing and other preventive efforts by their owners.
Two relief funds have been established for fire victims: Cotopaxi Church Relief Fund, 20326 Highway 50, Cotopaxi CO 81223; Frémont Disaster Fund, P.O. Box 1854, Canon City CO 81215-1854. Both welcome checks, and say all funds will be kept on deposit locally and distributed to fire victims.
Those were the two biggest fires before our deadline, but hardly the only ones. Slurry tankers were called out on June 1 to keep a small blaze from turning into a big one near O’Haver Lake along the Marshall Pass Road. A fire on June 7 near Lake George in Park County had burned at least 100 acres and forced the evacuation of 20 homes and two campgrounds. And on June 8,the Coal Seam west of Glenwood Springs forced evacuations and closed Interstate 70 after it spread to more than 8,000 acres.
Slurry tankers may be a common sight this summer, according to Rich Homann, fire division supervisor for the Colorado State Forest Service. “It just makes good sense to get to the fires this quickly,” he said. “When fuels are this dry, our best chance of keeping fires small is to get to them quickly.”
Dropping water or fire-retardant also helps keep ground crews out of harm’s way, a major consideration when forests are so dry that blazes spread at almost explosive speeds.
And some Coloradans are taking an extra step to be prepared — the annual Colorado Wildfire Academy, held in Alamosa this year, attracted 1,200 people for four days of training. Most were sheriff’s deputies, volunteer firemen, and the like, but 135 had no experience at all. It wasn’t an easy class. To pass, you had to be able to carry a 40-pound pack for three miles in less than 45 minutes.
Now, if there were just a class for journalists covering wildfires. One of our pet peeves is a statement like “5,000 acres have been destroyed.”
Although the timber, foliage and buildings may have been destroyed, the acres weren’t. You’re not going to find some 5,000-acre crater where there used to be a mountainside.