Wildfire Suppression Response
Most of Boulder County is served by Fire
Protection Districts and/or individual municipal Fire Departments.
Many of the districts are staffed wholly by volunteers. Boulder
County Dispatch coordinates the first response to a fire. The Annual
Operating Plan (AOP) spells out who is responsible for what during
a wildfire. Due to the very mixed ownership, there is often a need
for the USFS to respond. Previously, the USFS had significantly
utilized local Fire Protection Districts and Volunteer Fire Departments
for their suppression needs. Increasingly, the USFS has been filling
their own suppression needs. According to the local USFS Fire Management
Officer and local fire districts, this has created some dissatisfaction
with current working agreements about jurisdiction and reciprocal
agreements among local and federal fire agencies, departments and
districts.
In Boulder County the Sheriff's Department has
its own wildfire suppression and mitigation crew, the Boulder
County Wildland Task Force. The BCWTF is comprised of Cherryvale
Fire Protection District, City of Boulder Wildland Division, Boulder
Rural Fire Protection District, and Boulder Mountain Fire Authority.
These are all paid, well-trained and qualified firefighters that
respond as a unit. They can make up a short to full hand crew at
a Type II to Type I level to provide rapid initial attack response
for wildfire. Either the fire incident manager or County Emergency
Services must request them. The Sheriff's Department of Emergency
Services is responsible for the coordination and supervision of
the BCWTF.
The Boulder
County Fire Fighter's Association is an interagency group comprised
of 35-40 suppression players including county fire protection districts,
fire departments, city fire departments, county emergency services,
CSFS and USFS. For 20 years the BCFFA has been meeting on a monthly
basis. The Boulder County Fire Fighter's Association provides training
for all agencies. The Boulder County Wildland Fire Task Force is
a subset of the Boulder County Fire Fighters Association and they
meet sporadically. BCWTF provides National Wildfire Coordination
Group (NWCG) training for all agencies once a year.
Boulder County Office of Emergency Management
(OEM), funded and staffed jointly by the Boulder County Sheriff
and City of Boulder, coordinates the activities of volunteer, public
and private agencies in emergency planning, mobilizing, and direction
of emergency preparedness personnel in response to and recovery
from disasters or emergencies, including wildfire. The Emergency
Operations Plan delineates task assignments and responsibilities
for the operational actions that will be taken prior to, during,
and following an emergency or disaster affecting local government
to alleviate suffering, save lives and protect property. OEM has
the 911-call back system to notify the public of evacuations or
potential threat. They have had this system since 2000.
Boulder County Wildfire Mitigation Group
The Boulder
County Wildfire Mitigation Group (BCWMG) was formed in 1989,
shortly after the Black
Tiger Fire destroyed 44 homes and burned 2,100 mountain forest
acres in the Sugarloaf area just five miles from the city of Boulder.
In 1990, under a mandate from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agencies and individuals
involved in the Black Tiger Fire produced a report through the National
Fire Protection Association. Soon after, at the directive of the
Board of County Commissioners, those same agencies and individuals
formed the BCWMG. Its mission was to facilitate communication between
all parties with an interest in wildfire mitigation; to coordinate
actions amongst the parties that could help minimize loss of life
and property from future wildfires; and to act cooperatively in
addressing the issues by working together in effective partnerships.
BCWMG meets every three months to discuss, strategize and plan wildfire
mitigation efforts.
The Boulder County Wildfire Mitigation Coordinator,
in the County Land Use Department, heads BCWMG. The other partners
are members from the County Commissioners, Boulder County Open Space
& Mountain Parks, Sheriff's Department, Boulder County Firefighters
Association/various local Fire Protection Districts, CSFS, USFS,
National Park Service (NPS), City of Boulder Fire Department, American
Red Cross, forestry contractors and consultants, representatives
from the insurance and real estate industry, and private landowners
and home associations.
Since its inception, BCWMG and its various committees
and work groups have been recognized for its interagency approach.
Projects that BCWMG have undertaken include: development of a Wildfire
Hazard Identification and Mitigation System (WHIMS) in 1991
for mapping fire hazards; support for the Boulder County Ecosystem
Cooperative fire mitigation/forest health/restoration projects,
such as the Winiger
Ridge Ecosystem Pilot Project; developing mitigation grants
to assist homeowner associations and fire districts with their fire
mitigation efforts; creation of the Boulder
County Chipping Program to subsidize costs of chipping and to
aid in slash collection and disposal; coordinating prescribed fire
programs amongst the various fire management entities within Boulder
County (Boulder County Wildfire Cooperators); education and outreach
programs; supporting fuel reduction work through the use of fire
mitigation crews and AmeriCorps crews; assists in Land Use Reviews
and Urban/Wildland Interface Code development to encourage FireWise
development; installation of Fire Danger Rating Signs at the entrance
of major canyons.
Colorado State Forest Service Suppression Efforts
 Allen
Owen, District Forester with Colorado
State Forest Service (CSFS), is the local fire management officer
and grant administrator for various suppression efforts and activities.
Within Boulder County, Owen has at his disposal 600 red carded fire
fighters, 19 fire departments that have cooperative resource agreements
and 11 fire engines. "I think we have some of the best educated,
well-equipped wildland firefighters in the western U.S. right here
in Boulder County," says Owen. With the expertise in Boulder
County alone they have many personnel qualified at the Type II level,
and are able to field a Type III incident management team. There
is great cooperation among all agencies including the county and
federal entities. "We play well together, better than most,"
says Owen. CSFS involvement in suppression includes fire fighting,
interagency fire training, firefighter certification, and fire vehicle
replacement and inspections. Owen has developed National Wildfire
Coordinating Group training programs for all the fire departments
and the Boulder Fire Academy that trains 80-100 fire fighters every
year. All of the red-carded fire fighters have full personal protective
equipment. Owen acts like a mini dispatch center during fire season
with the 19 fire departments. The CSFS Fire Equipment Shop provides
mechanical support to rural fire departments, local, county, state
and federal cooperators by developing, fabricating, repairing, and
maintaining fire equipment. Excess military equipment is converted
by the Fire Equipment Shop into fire engines that provide fire departments
with fire protection they would not otherwise be able to afford.
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Cherryvale Fire Protection District
Cherryvale
Fire Protection District began in 1958 and services about
55 square miles around the City of Boulder, Superior/Rock
Creek and Flagstaff Mountain. They are staffed by a combination
of career and volunteer members who are state certified to
handle diverse emergency calls. The district is unique in
that it has its own Wildland Crew and a Wildland Fire Coordinator.
Cherryvale Fire was the first fire (non-Fed or State) agency
in Colorado to initiate, dedicate funds, and actually conduct
a full time Wildland Fire Mitigation Program. Other agencies
now have these, but Cherryvale was the first to have a crew
in 1997, and at the time were one of a handful of fire districts/departments
in the country to do this type of work at no additional cost
to the homeowners other than the taxes they already paid.
They currently cut more board feet of timber a year then the
USFS Boulder Ranger District, and the City of Boulder OP&MP
and come close to prescription fire acres burned annually.
All of the major mitigation organizations in Boulder County
have needed to use Cherryvale's mitigation crew to complete
their own projects. In 1984, Cherryvale adopted its first
fire code. The primary interest was to evaluate fire and life
safety hazards within the district. Primarily the code enforcement
revolves around new construction, commercial, retail, and
school occupancies. The Fire Marshall must approve all new
commercial, multi-family, and new residential development
plans. Adherence to all fire and safety measures is required
before construction commences.
Cherryvale has designed and built three
wildland engines, bringing their total to five wildland specific
vehicles. They have compiled vast amounts of information on
the wildlands and forests within the district and have maps
that detail the fuel types and densities. These maps coupled
with the Wildfire
Hazards Identification and Mitigation Survey, (WHIMS),
maps help them decide which homes are defendable, based on
current and predicted fire conditions.
Cherryvale has a mountain properties wildfire
mitigation program. The goal of the Cherryvale Fire Protection
District's Mitigation Crew is to provide rapid and effective
initial structural and wildland fire suppression, emergency
medical service, and reduce wildfire exposure to the citizens
and their property through mitigation techniques. Cherryvale
Fire, in conjunction with CSFS and Boulder County Land Use
Department, has conducted studies on each home in the Flagstaff
area. Each home was analyzed for its ability to resist ignition
from a wildfire. Additionally, every acre of wildland was
surveyed and mapped to determine specific composition, forest
litter orientation, and total volume of forest floor residue.
The Wildland Crew and the property owner together develop
a plan to mitigate homes of wildfire hazards. Cherryvale also
does public education and outreach efforts regarding wildfire.
Because of Cherryvale's mitigation efforts, Flagstaff Mountain
has been the most proactive community in Boulder County with
wildfire mitigation efforts.
The Cherryvale fire district is supported
solely through a special 8.326-mil tax assessed to the constituents
of the district. This equates to $100 per $100,000 assessed
property value. The taxing district was created in 1978 and
the mitigation crew started in 1997. Because all property
owners are assessed, any property owner in their mountain
communities can request defensible space work as well as prescribed
fire work on their properties at no additional cost. Since
1997 they have created approximately 80 defensible spaces
out of 210 homes in the Flagstaff mountain community. The
mitigation crew has evolved into a wildland fire crew that
concentrates on suppression during fire season and mitigation
work during the other months. While their work is dedicated
to their district, they also play an integral role in most
of the prescribed fire activities in the county. Since 1997,
Cherryvale has treated between 200-300 acres in the Cherryvale
Fire District with the majority of the work being prescribed
fire. Average cost per acres ranges from $700-800.
Rocky Mountain Helitack
In August 2001, the City of Boulder Department
of Public Works Utilities Division launched a prototype air
support program to protect the city's water supplies from
significant wildland fire effects. Boulder Fire & Rescue
Wildland Fire Division Chief Marc Mullenix and Chief Tomboloto
of Cherryvale
Fire Protection District recommended a helicopter approach
as the only efficient way to overcome problems such as accessibility
to difficult terrain, extended response time to remote areas,
and the mixture of jurisdictions. In 2003, the City of Boulder
and Cherryvale took over the operations and management of
RMH. Regional requests within Boulder County are made through
the Emergency Services division of the Sheriff's Department
to the Boulder Regional Communications Center. Resource requests
from outside Boulder County are made through the appropriate
interagency dispatch center. RMH supplements the federal aviation
resources available both within the State of Colorado and
the state's single-engine air tanker program.
Boulder County Wildfire Mitigation Specialist
In 1994, Boulder County Board of County
Commissioners created the Wildfire
Mitigation Specialist position. The position is located
in the County
Land Use Department as a result of advocacy by the Long
Range Planner and the Boulder County Chief Building Official,
both of whom were located in the Land Use Department. The
position is designed to function as an interagency liaison
between Boulder County and various local, state and nation-wide
entities with local interest in wildfire mitigation. The main
duties for the position are public outreach and wildfire mitigation
education, including working with homeowner associations and
fire districts doing mitigation education programs, and running
the chipping and slash programs. Other official duties include
providing information to County staff on wildfire mitigation
matters, assisting county staff, coordinating the Boulder
County Wildfire Mitigation Group, helping the local fire protection
districts in the coordination and implementation of wildland
fire education programs assisting with forest management,
building code adoption and enforcement, and the Land Use Site
Plan Review processes with respect to wildfire considerations.
Red Cross
Since August 2003, Red
Cross has completed 205 home wildfire risk assessments
in Boulder County. The Red Cross is working with CSFS, the
Student Conservation Association, and Boulder County Land
Use in a partnership effort to educate homeowners regarding
wildfire mitigation. Sometimes this is setting up a table
at an event to talk to people, other times they organize community
meetings. They also go door-to-door in neighborhoods in the
interface to talk to people and offer to do a homesite assessment.
CSFS, SCA, USFS and others helped Red Cross train the volunteers
to assist with this project.
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