From our offices downtown, we can see the white-capped tips of Pikes Peak and Mount Evans along with a ribbon of snow-covered mountains in between. Clearly, winter has been good to the mountains with above-average snowpack across the state.
But the Front Range, from the foothills to the grassy plains, is brown, bone dry and dangerous. The thin layer of wet snow that coated grassy areas Sunday is all but a memory.
We’re mired in a wicked spring fire season.
Some 91 fires this year have burned nearly 30,000 acres across Colorado, many from Douglas to Larimer county. And it’s only April 6.
Twenty-seven wildfires threatened the northern Front Range suburbs in March alone — nine times the 15-year March average of three.
A dry autumn and little winter snowfall have created hazardous conditions that have been made worse by high winds buffeting the area.
But dry conditions aren’t the only common denominator of all of these fires: They also were all started by people.
Often in wildfire season we opine about the unhealthy condition of our forests, how years of neglect have created forests that are thick with dead trees and downed timber and slash. That neglect then allows for catastrophic wildfires.
But many of these blazes are burning in dry grasses and scrub brush, not just foothills timber. That’s because of the tinder-box conditions.
Not to sound too much like Smokey Bear, but we could have prevented many of these fires. We all need to be more careful given the conditions that exist this spring.
Burning weeds, even if you have a permit, is a bad idea on a windy day. Campfires need to be completely extinguished. And watch where you toss your matches and cigarettes. Even a hot tailpipe on a car that backs into tall, dry weeds can spark a fire.
Nervous officials in Larimer County, where firefighters are still battling the 3,200-acre Crystal fire, on Tuesday put fire restrictions in place — an unusual step so early in the season. No camp or cooking fires are allowed, along with no agricultural burning. Only “contained” fires are allowed, including camp stoves and grills using gas or pressurized liquid and those in permanently constructed, stationary, metal or masonry fireplaces, according to a Denver Post story.
It wouldn’t hurt other dry Front Range counties to follow their lead.
Fire officials fear we could be heading for our worst fire season since 2002, when 244,252 acres were torched — more than half in the monstrous, 138,000-acre Hayman fire.
Coloradans can’t do anything about the conditions, but we can all be more careful.
