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<br />material is measuring between 5-10% fuel moisture content, which is very dry, Some stations are
<br />reporting it down to 4,5% moisture content. What that means is when it's receptive to igniting
<br />quickly and it generally bums hot and fast. The other aspect of influence of fire, particularly large
<br />fires, is the condition of the forest. And generally speaking, as you've heard many times before,
<br />the forest is overstocked, dense, and there's a lot of fuel available, which is outside the normal
<br />variability of the natural ecosystem, So when fires get going, they have a lot of fuels to bum,
<br />Weather conditions this late spring have been set that we've had a lot of wind events, which tends
<br />to push fires and increase the rate of spread, The data you see on this is the last time I was able to
<br />sit down and do some statistical runs or number counting, it was Sunday night about 11, and
<br />we've got 486 fires reported total in Colorado over all areas and lands (?) at that time, and they
<br />have bumed 31,600 acres, That's changed significantly in the last two days, but I haven't been
<br />able to update this, The significant part is we have had in our impacts to the state, you'll see under
<br />the left hand side tables, and those included the Snaking Fire, the Pineglen fires, The Snaking was
<br />in part Jefferson County, Pineglen in El Paso, The Green fire was in La Plata County, Puerto
<br />Verde in Custer County, and the Black Mountain just outside oftown here, The full cost estimates
<br />at this time for the suppression of those fires, those 6 fires, is $4.2 million, Some of that will be
<br />shared with our federal partners, but there will be a significant tab on the state funds, Current fires
<br />that we have within the past week that are still ongoing, Cowcamp fire is in La Plata County,
<br />Bucktail in Montezuma County, the Schoonover just outside of town here, Douglas County, and
<br />the Findley Fire is just northeast of Saguache right now, I haven't gotten a situation report on it
<br />yet this morning, State and local resources, from a preparedness stand, every year we initiate
<br />annual operating plans in 43 counties, we have those done, the 43 counties belong to the
<br />Emergency Fire Fund, and contribute fmancially to that. Colorado State Forest Service supplies
<br />and maintains 140 engines to fire departments across the state, Through the Governor's Executive
<br />Order, we have brought up 3 single engine air tankers this year that have been running on most of
<br />these fires, and this year the corrections crew out at Canon City has come into being, they're not
<br />full strength yet, but they did participate on the Snaking Fire, and we look forward to having them
<br />as a resource, I've already gone over fuels conditions, weather and drought significance, the
<br />drought affects frreflghting long term and the weather, the wind events, affect it short term,
<br />Outlook - Colorado's fire assessment of acres and potential risks to catastrophic fires stands at 6,3
<br />million acres of probably, you pick that up at the red zone, that's the popular terminology for it,
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<br />I need to emphasize that those are acres at high risk to catastrophic disturbance, that could be frre,
<br />it could be insect disease outbreaks, What makes them high risk to catastrophic disturbance is a
<br />combination of a hazard, the condition of the forest, the potential for ignition in case of wildfire,
<br />and the values that reside in that forest. The values are, we measure them by counting houses,
<br />because it's easy to do that off the census list, The values also include watershed, wildlife, historic
<br />and archaeological sites, Where are we compared to other years? We're about 7 weeks ahead as
<br />far as numbers of frres, and the ease of ignition and intensity of fires is above average, We see
<br />that, and we see that trend has grown every year for the last 10 years or so, Part of that is due to
<br />the condition of the forest, part of its due to growth of people moving into the forest, in the
<br />interface areas, Again, I've updated this Sunday May 20tli, between Saturday and Sunday we had
<br />21 or 22 starts, The frres on, the current frres, are a result of lightening strikes, and some of them
<br />sat there a day or two before anybody noticed them, and that's what were seeing now, The
<br />weather coming in, and I'm sure you'll hear a little about this later, the predicted weather is what
<br />we plan on as far as resources and tapping., ,and most of the time the on-site weather that we get
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