FLOOD03008

• County: Statewide
• Basin: Statewide
• Title: Colorado Wildfire Hazard Mitigation Plan Annex I
• Date: 8/1/1995
• Prepared For: State of Colorado
• Prepared By: USFWS
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Mitigation/Flood Warning/Watershed Restoration

"Our increasing fuel loads
help fires to burn hotter."

"A worse scenario is for a
Black Tiger Fire to occur in
a smaller county."

"We must do more than
merely allow natural fuels to
grow and burn."

"The public perceives
the fire service can
handle any fire."

"We know we are going to
lose structures to wildfires."

conflagrations of the type experienced in the 1989 Black Tiger Fire and
the many 1994 wildfires will occur in Colorado.

Once ignited, wildfire behavior and spread are affected by three major
factors: fuels, weather and topography. Traditionally, the fuel component
consisted of grasses, brush, trees and accumulations of dead vegetation.
"Interface" fuels now also contain homes, outbuildings, businesses and
other valuable improvements which also serve as combustible fuels.
Firewood piles, poor outdoor housekeeping and fire'prone construction
add to the problem. In some cases, the fuel load of an interface area's
vegetation and structures is equal to or greater than the original native
vegetation before development.

"ICI
" or

qo. ..,
~~
'"

...:,i:';'
'-

I

"\ ~
~'l:i
t.......~

'-" .~
~~... '.
.~~ ..,;,.,......:

.

......: ..~~.
f." ..... -

~.

".

Poor "housekeeping" in heaVliy Jorestea areas presents severe fire hazards.

Ironically, improved fire protection coupled with decreased forest cutting
and grazing has contributed to the fuel increase. Insect,killed trees and
other forest health problems in interface areas also increase the ready,to,
bum fuel situation. Natural conditions had periodic fires to bum the
vegetation. Some fires would have burned with little change to the
environment. Thicker forests and brush fields, now fife, prone due to
elimination of fife, are ready to bum intensely and destructively. It is this
same thick vegetation that appeals to people as a hideaway building site.

Weather, the second major factor, is the rapidly changing variable It often
determines size of a fife. High winds, hot days, low humidity and low
moisture, so characteristic of Colorado, create favorable conditions for
wildfires. Combined, these conditions can quickly transform small, "easy"
fires into severe infernos. This is the norm during periods of extended
drought. Because of weather, wildfires have occurred in all months of the
year in Colorado.

Topography or terrain, the third major factor, affects a fife's spread.
Canyons and gullies channel winds and thereby channel fire spread.
Because heat rises, fire naturally bums upslope. Therefore, homes built in
a canyon or on steep slopes overlooking a view have less chance of
escaping destruction by wildfire. Slope and terrain also hinder fire fighting

5