10 years after Black Forest fire, Colorado boosts funding for fire investigation

Jun. 12—Investigators have never found the causes of some of the largest and most destructive fires in Colorado history, including the Black Forest fire, a trend state officials hope to change with more staff.

Finding the cigarettes, shell casings or other telltale signs of a fire's cause amid the ashes is tedious work that can take professionals working through inches of ground at a time with magnifying glasses and magnets to find.

Key evidence can be lost or much harder to find as time passes, scenes see lots of foot or vehicle traffic, or the ground is soaked in rain or snow. So investigators need to get to the scene as soon as it's safe and get started, fire investigators said.

The Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control's sole fire investigator, Dawn Tollis, does her best getting to the fires where local departments have asked for her help, with hard-to-solve house fires, fatal fires or catastrophic wildfires.

"I work a 24/7 on call schedule. So I don't have nights. I don't have weekends. I don't have holidays. ... And that can be challenging," she said.

Her average commute is 6 1/2 hours to many rural communities, and everywhere she goes, Jo Jo, a black Lab trained to detect petroleum products, goes along to sniff out evidence.

This year, the state Legislature approved a new law with $2.76 million in the first year to hire Tollis some help. The state plans to fund seven more fire investigators, a chief to oversee their work and an administrator. The eight fire investigators will work in teams of two across the four quadrants of the state. In addition, the state plans to get another dog to detect accelerants, like Jo Jo for the western side of the state, said Chief Christopher Brunette, who oversees the fire and life safety section of the state office.

"This will give us the opportunity to respond quickly and in force," he said. He expected such help would be welcome because three quarters of the state's fire departments are staffed by volunteers.

Finding the causes of more fires can also help with prevention; for example, investigations in the the 1980s found a type of Mr. Coffee was starting house fires, and subsequently they were pulled from store shelves, he said.

Sheriff's Office Tip Line

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office asks members of the community who may have new information regarding the Black Forest fire to call the tip line at 719-520-7777.

However, in some cases, such as the Black Forest fire, evidence is scarce.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office led the investigation in the Black Forest fire that burned 14,280 acres, destroyed 489 homes and killed two residents 10 years ago. The team included investigators from the Aurora Fire Department, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies.

They found metallic particles near the origin of the fire, but could not determine where the particles had come from. The official report ruled the fire human-caused, but no official cause was found.

The origin point of the fire roughly near Colorado 83 and Shoup Road, but far from any roadway, is not typical of a fire intentionally set, the report said. The causes of many more recent fires, such as Cameron Peak and East Troublesome, have also never been found. The record-breaking 2020 fires hold the titles of first- and second-largest fires in state history.

On Down Falcon Drive, a dead-end lane off Shoup Road near the origin, the delineation of where the fire burned is clear with open rolling hills to the west and thick ponderosa pines on the east. Near that spot, firefighters from Black Forest Fire Rescue and Wescott Fire Protection District were within 100 yards of having it contained when the 40-45 mph winds hit, said Keith Worley, a forester who helped report on the fire for then-Gov. John Hickenlooper.

"It took off and it went 8.5 miles that first afternoon," Worley said. In some areas, it left behind a moonscape of blackened soil and trees.

Through interviews and physical evidence, investigators track fires that spread across thousands of acres like Black Forest back to their origin point.

It's a skill students at the Colorado Wildland Fire and Incident Management Academy were practicing Thursday in Alamosa, using brightly colored flags to indicate fire behavior at several different small fires. With little blackened stubs of grass and shrubs to guide them, they placed flags to mark how the fire had grown, they explained to The Gazette. Red flags marked the direction the wind was pushing a fire, yellow flags indicated areas where the fire was pushing out sideways and blue showed the areas where the fire had burned in the opposite direction the wind was blowing.

Once the point of origin was determined, the students broke out string to mark their progress as they sifted through the ashes for evidence planted by instructors based on different scenarios. In one case, the students worked through a scene near a staged homeless camp.

A trainee, Trevor Nieslanik, from the Palisade Fire Department, said he expected the training to be helpful to his work, where his many responsibilities include identifying causes of fires in official reports.

He also hoped the new state fire investigators could assist small departments like his where only two to four people work each day and may not have time to spend two hours digging through ash when they have medical calls waiting.

A fire investigator involved in more than one jurisdiction could also start to see the patterns of arson sooner across a broader area and potentially stop a fire-starter, he said.

During the class, Tollis' black Lab, Jo Jo, showed off her skills sniffing out accelerate and sitting down to show it was present. Her nose is far more efficient at determining whether a petroleum-based product is present than small probes an inch in diameter that can be used as an alternative to a dog, Tollis explained.

"Jo Jo and I can do an 800-square-foot house in less than 10 minutes. So, it's really beneficial to use as a resource," she said.

In addition to boosting state fire investigation staff, the new law also has a provision to reimburse large city departments like Colorado Springs for helping neighboring communities, Fire Marshal Brett Lacey said. While the city would have provided assistance anyway, it's an issue of fairness.

In Colorado Springs, where six full-time fire investigators work to determine causes, the department has a track record of finding the cause of about 60% to 70% of fires, he said.

Some of the less well-known causes of fire can include glass water bowls that magnified the sunlight and the microorganisms in hay or grass that can generate so much heat they spontaneously combust.

While those are examples of true accidents, if a deliberate act or negligence played a role starting a fire it can help defray insurance costs, and with general fire prevention by helping to identify trends, said Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.

For example, Pacific Gas and Electric reached a $13.5 billion settlement over fires in California, related in part to poorly maintained power lines.

"Any fire we can link back to some entity that is financially responsible does in the long run help all policyholders," she said.