Springs Fire Marshal talks fire season predictions
(COLORADO SPRINGS) — The Fire Marshal for the Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD) recently sat down during the City’s Behind the Springs podcast to discuss the upcoming fire season, or lack thereof. While summer does typically see more fires due to higher temperatures, Fire Marshal Brett Lacey warns that fire is no longer a seasonal danger, but rather year-round.
Lacey joined City Communications specialist Jen Schreuder on the podcast to discuss wildfire planning in the city, especially for those living in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), which includes most of the west side and some homes in central Colorado Springs.
According to COSWildfireReady, the WUI is an area “where houses or businesses are in or near mixed topographical and geographical features with various timber, brush, and grass species. It is an area that poses a greater than normal risk to people and their property due to the proximity of combustible vegetation and structures.”
For those living in the WUI, and even those outside of it, wildfire is an ever-present danger, though Fire Marshal Lacey said there are steps you can take to protect yourself and your property, as well as make your home more defensible for firefighters who respond should the worst happen.
“We need the population to help stack the deck in our favor as best we can,” said Lacey. “It is incumbent on the citizens of Colorado Springs to help us share the responsibility in mitigating: cleaning up their property, keeping trash and debris away, minimizing the susceptibility for ignition of their home in the event of any kind of a grass or wildland fire.”
This is especially important for those living in the WUI, Lacey stressed, because the vegetation in those areas can go up in flames so quickly, and result in erratic, dangerous fires, even if we’ve received moisture recently.
“We call them flash fields for a reason,” explained Lacey. “Because you can have a drenching rain, and within an hour of sunshine and a light breeze, that stuff, within an hour, is ready to light off again.”
Lacey said this is why CSFD urges property owners and neighbors to “limb up and clean up”–trim lower branches of Gamble Oak and Ponderosa Pine trees, and keep grasses trimmed, because the grass will catch quickly and carry fire up toward brush and eventually tree canopies, as well as buildings.
And while many may assume this is really only a summer problem, think again.
“We used to say ‘wildfire season,’ and we thought of that at kind of, late May into August/September,” said Lacey. “Over the last few years, because of the way climate has been behaving, or misbehaving as some people would say, we now have a ‘fire year.'”
So as temperatures rise, many may be wondering what the fire outlook for the summer is like, and thankfully, Lacey said it appears “normal,” at least for our region, compared to drier, hotter years past. Thanks to some heavier snowfalls over the winter and predicted monsoonal moisture in June, Lacey said seasoned Coloradans will know that means more moisture in the vegetation to decrease flammability, but it also means vegetation will be growing thicker. Meaning more plentiful fuels for potential fires when that vegetation dries out.
“I would just ask everybody in the City of Colorado Springs to just be vigilant, be careful, be safe, and call early if you think you see smoke,” Lacey said.
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