For Ray and Ellen Cramton, the quiet fire season roared to life when the phone rang Tuesday afternoon. The voice on the reverse 911 call told them to evacuate ahead of the wildfire bearing down on Basalt.
“That may be part of living in Colorado, but it’s the call you never want to get,” Ray Cramton said Wednesday afternoon.
Luckily, fire crews made fast work of the once-scary Basalt Mountain fire without losing any homes or businesses.
“We’ll be here to wait on the next one,” Ray Cramton joked.
Until a week ago, fast-moving, intense fires had been a stranger across parts of the state this year.
Deep into the 2009 wildfire season, which extends from May through September, Colorado has lost 26,259 acres to 678 fires.
In an average season, 130,465 acres go up in flames. In 2008, Colorado lost 141,966 acres, according to federal statistics.
As rains diminished the past two weeks, Rio Blanco, Mesa and Moffat counties each saw blazes of 800 acres or more. There were smaller fires in other parts of the state.
“We have had a great moisture year, but the number of fires we’re seeing are definitely starting to pick up,” said Tom Wardle, assistant state forester. “With the higher temperatures and lower humidity, it’s just basic fire physics.”
Wardle said it’s too early to predict the rest of the fire season, although forecasters are calling for a wet August.
That comes as little comfort in northwestern Colorado, where dry lightning Monday afternoon sparked a blaze that scorched 2,500 acres west of Maybell.
Air and ground crews are hoping for full containment sometime today, said Lynn Barclay, a spokeswoman for the Northwest Colorado Fire Management Unit in Craig.
The rain has created a peril for later, she said.
“With increased moisture, there’s been an increase in grasses, shrubs and all kinds of vegetation,” she said. “As it dries out, it’s going to mean more fuel.”
Legislators joined the fight, passing eight bills this year to promote forest health, provide more resources to fire departments, and press communities, towns and counties to work together on fire-prevention plans.
Local, state and federal fire crews also deserve a lot of credit for quickly stamping out smaller fires this year, officials said.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
