Since then, state and federal agencies have joined them to discuss ways to reduce dead trees and other potential wildfire fuels in the forest nearby, not only for the threat they pose to Frisco, but also to the Dillon Reservoir bordering town to the east. Wildfire runoff could contaminate the reservoir, which represents about 40% of Denver Water’s supply to the metro area.

Earlier this month, Frisco — which measures less than two square miles and has a population of about 3,000 — and those agencies worked out a plan for wildfire fuel reduction on national forest land. But in doing so, they also took that opportunity to expand recreation opportunities in a 3,000-acre area south and east of town, colloquially known as Frisco’s “Backyard.”

That part of the plan includes improving 40 miles of summer trails and 10 miles of groomed cross-country ski trails and redesigning two trailheads that will encourage more people to recreate in the White River National Forest. To do so, the forest service will issue a special use permit — similar to what the agency does for ski areas — that will allow Frisco to help manage the Backyard.

The Backyard gets more than 250,000 visitors per year across all four seasons, and many of them are coming “directly from town,” said White River’s acting Dillon district ranger, Sam Massman. “That huge number of visitors makes it really important to the local outdoor recreation tourism economy. It����ap a way of life for [them]. A lot of people can leave right from their house and be into the woods. They spend a ton of time back there.”

For years, the town has had a separate special use permit to manage recreation in the Peninsula Recreation Area, which is also situated on forest service land and includes an extensive trail network for both winter and summer recreation. That area includes the popular Frisco Nordic Center and extends down to the reservoir itself.

“We’ve kind of built out those trails,” said town spokeswoman Vanessa Agee. “Now we want to move over to the Backyard and build there, and it����ap all going to be connected at some point. The most amazing thing is that you could be staying at a hotel or an Airbnb, right off of Main Street or on Main Street, you could walk three blocks and you’re headed onto the Frisco Backyard.”

Tying it all together

The work will begin this summer, when Frisco begins construction of a 1.3-mile summer hiking trail and a 1.4-mile Nordic ski trail connecting the Peninsula Recreation Area, which is north of Colorado Highway 9, with the Backyard on the other side of the highway. In late summer, the town plans to begin rebuilding, improving or re-routing an additional 12.3 miles of trails.

It also hopes to begin construction of 4.7 miles of new trails and adopt 14.3 miles of “social trails” — unofficial pathways that have been created by human traffic — for addition to the existing forest service trail network.

“We’re looking at them together, trying to make a logical system where we’re not duplicating routes and where we’re considering how the trails and the recreation experience interact with the proposed fuels treatments,” Massman explained.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit Summit Huts Association plans to build an overnight hut at the Peninsula Recreation Area in partnership with the town. Summit Huts already operates five backcountry huts in Summit County and will fundraise to build the Frisco hut.

“We kind of have this model of working with the forest service,” said Pete Swenson, Frisco’s Nordic Center and trails manager. “Once you get out of the town of Frisco, you’re pretty much on forest service land, so it����ap a logical partnership.”

Wildfires are a “legit concern”

But it was the fire mitigation plan that paved the way for the recreation improvements.

While Frisco is small, it acts as a sort of gateway town for the Breckenridge and Copper Mountain ski areas, and to some degree for people heading over Vail Pass to the ski resorts further along I-70. As a result, it boasts an assortment of stores, restaurants and other businesses that generate sales tax revenue, enabling the town to pursue ambitious projects despite its small size.

That includes more than $780,000 the town spent on the National Environmental Policy resource management study (approved this month) regarding the wildfire risk they face and ways to mitigate it. It was a direct reaction to those fires in 2005 and 2017.

“We were all like, ‘It����ap a legit concern, we actually need to do more around fire mitigation, we have a real problem,'” said Agee, the town spokeswoman. “It’s not that we were dumb and didn’t think that fire danger was legit, but that really made us think harder.”

Fuels treatment means reducing materials that could readily burn and spread wildfire. The Backyard has a lot of lodgepole pine trees that were killed by the mountain pine beetle. Fuel reduction work will focus on removing dead and live lodgepole pines.

“The aspen trees, the spruce trees and the fir trees, those will all stay,” said Massman, adding that they are immune to the pine beetle. “The area is steep, there is no real road access, so most of the treatments will occur with hand crews cutting with chainsaws and then hand-piling logs for future pile burning. It����ap not like a prescribed burn. We’d make these piles and then we’d burn them in the winter when snow is on the ground.”

Concerning the reservoir, Denver Water spokesman Todd Hartman said the agency is “heavily engaged” in forest management projects like what’s planned for Frisco’s Backyard to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires that have damaged other reservoirs.

“The size of the reservoir does insulate it against some impacts that would be more damaging to some of our smaller reservoirs,” Hartman said in an email. “A reservoir as large and as deep as Dillon would naturally be more resilient to this kind of event than a smaller one. Even so, a large fire that resulted in the need for debris cleanup (burned trees and the like) in Dillon could prove costly and disrupt operations there.”

In addition to the USFS and Denver Water, the town is also working with Summit County, the Colorado State Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation on the overall plan.

The Backyard was incorporated into the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument when it was created by presidential proclamation in 2022. The national monument is located on two parcels of national forest land, one in the historic Camp Hale area west of Copper Mountain and south of Vail Pass, the other on either side of the Tenmile Range east of Copper Mountain. That includes the Backyard, which contains historical sites from Summit County’s 19th-century mining days.

“It includes what����ap left of the Masontown, which was a mining town on the side of Mount Royal for decades around the turn of the 20th century,” Massman said. “A lot of the historic objects back there are wood cabin remains. We designed the project also to make those objects more protected from fire and hopefully better managed with regard to the high levels of visitation.”

Summit County deputies responded to an explosion at the trailhead for Straight Creek Trail near the Dillon Valley neighborhood shortly before 7 a.m. Friday, according to a .

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Summit Fire and Emergency Medical Services, the Red, White, and Blue Fire Protection District and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Residents in the area reported hearing an explosion and seeing smoke, sheriff’s officials said. When deputies arrived, they found a vehicle fully engulfed in flames.

One man was inside the car when it exploded, and he died from his injuries at the scene, according to the release. He will be identified by the Summit County Coroner’s Office.

“Anytime there is an explosion and a tragic death, there will be a significant investigation,” Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons said in a statement. “We have brought together a team of experts to determine exactly what happened. What we know right now is that a person has died, and our thoughts are with their loved ones as we work to find out exactly what happened.”

Investigators believe the explosion was an isolated incident.

Anyone with information about the deadly incident is asked to contact the Summit County Sheriff’s Office at 970-668-8600.

The Straight Creek Trail is an old double-track road that parallels Interstate 70 up to the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel, .

Hikers on the trail cross Straight Creek several times as they climb up the valley through a pine forest, U.S. Forest Service officials said. Straight Creek is the main water supply for Dillon.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

“If it����ap a powder day, people come up here to ski, because it����ap great,” said Manning, who is based in Frisco. “They all try to get into one place at the same time, and there’s only so much water you can fit through the hose. Anytime traffic is stopped on a through lane on an interstate highway, it����ap a hazard.”

The exit from the interstate onto Colorado 91, which is the state highway that leads from Copper over Fremont Pass to Leadville, can be problematic on busy days — not only for Copper’s patrons, but also for westbound I-70 motorists heading to Vail and points beyond.

“There are some infrastructure things that could be done to alleviate some of the backup,” Manning said. “But if we’re talking about people waiting to get off at the Copper exit, and you’ve got a mile of cars backed up, you’d have to build a third lane all the way to Silverthorne.”

Jason Smith, the Colorado Department of Transportation director for the northwest region, which includes Summit County, said the agency “remains concerned about the ongoing safety and congestion impacts on Interstate 70 and Highway 91 related to parking operations at Copper Mountain resort,” despite efforts made by resort officials over the past two years to mitigate the problem.

Two years ago, Copper added 861 parking spaces to the Far East parking lot, located on the other side of Colorado 91 opposite the resort, which expanded it from 1,386 to 2,247 spaces. Last year, resort officials adjusted the way traffic teams route skiers to the Far East lot and the Alpine Lot, located just west of CO 91. Previously they loaded the Alpine lot first, then Far East. Now they direct traffic to both lots simultaneously on busy days to improve traffic flow.

“That was just a matter of efficiency to get people into lots, on the buses (from the lots) and onto the mountain quicker,” said Copper spokeswoman Olivia Butrymovich.

Alpine and Far East are Copper’s two main free lots with more than 3,100 spaces between them.

“That lot on the east side is gigantic, and it used to be much smaller,” Manning said. “It looks to me like it����ap much more organized than it used to be. I think Copper Mountain is doing the best with what they’ve got. They’re a well-trained traffic management crew. I think they do a wonderful job. The fact that traffic backs up on the interstate is (due to) a lot of people loving to ski and snowboard.”

Smith said CDOT engineers “communicate regularly” with resort officials when real-time concerns arise, and it has been working “collaboratively” with Copper to improve traffic and parking operations.

“Backups happen on busy weekend/holiday timeframes,” said Copper’s director of mountain operations, Bill Blair, in a statement forwarded by the resort’s PR department. “They can also occur during weather events when road conditions deteriorate. We are always reevaluating traffic flow into the parking lots at the resort and trying new methods to alleviate congestion. CDOT is a valuable partner in this process, and we will continue to work with them to find innovative solutions to managing high volume timeframes.”

There are concerns about the future, too. Copper’s updated 10-year Master Development Plan, which was accepted by the White River National Forest in February, includes a 500-acre terrain expansion on the backside of the ski area onto Tucker Mountain and Jacque Peak. It would cater to advanced skiers and snowboarders, with a lift that would have the highest upper terminal in North America at just over 13,000 feet. That would give Copper bragging rights over Breckenridge, which has a lift topping out at 12,840 feet, and Loveland (12,700).

There is no timeline for that expansion. While the master development plan has been “accepted” as a whole by the forest service, any expansion would need to be approved separately by the forest service following an environmental impact statement and a public comment process.

“That����ap just our master development plan, that’s just our intention, nothing’s official with those plans,” Butrymovich said. “It����ap a 10-year outlook on what we would love to do with our mountain, but would have to go through the proper channels with the forest service — and with our parent company (Powdr Corp.) for capital funding.”

But, if and when it becomes a reality, it presumably would drive increased traffic to Copper.

“Given the anticipated increase in skier traffic from the Copper Mountain Resort expansion, CDOT has serious safety concerns regarding parking and traffic flow,” Smith said. “CDOT will continue to work with the resort to assess these issues and recommend short-term and long-term improvements to reduce the likelihood of traffic backups on I-70.”

While Copper officials have little to say about the expansion’s potential impact on traffic, the master development plan does address the issue.

“To accommodate CMR’s upgrade capacity, Copper will need to expand its day use parking, incentivize public transit ridership, and encourage guests to carpool to increase CMR’s average vehicle occupancy (AVO),” it says. “CMR may need to pursue additional parking options to accommodate its upgrade capacity. Such options could include parking structures, or ‘decks,’ above CMR’s existing lots. These decks would most likely be located on private land and would only be pursued if other strategies fail to prove sufficient. Before seriously considering these decks, CMR will incentivize guests to carpool (to increase its AVO) and/or use public transit.”

In the meantime, Manning says the State Patrol sends troopers to observe traffic operations on busy days when they have the resources to do it. Motorists tend to behave better when they see trooper cruisers.

“It����ap pretty cool, right?” Manning said. “We drive around with this little bubble of compliance that goes with our car. Nothing ever goes wrong when we’re near.”

Snowmass Falls Ranch, the largest inholding in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness and the gateway to some of the area’s most coveted recreation and wildlife habitat, was acquired in a historic purchase by Pitkin County, in partnership with The Wilderness Land Trust, to protect it from development.

The 650-acre property sits just outside Snowmass Village, at the foot of the Elk Range, with a majority of the property within the boundaries of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.

Originally established by Kate Lindvig, known as the “Cattle Queen of Snowmass,” during the original settlement of Aspen, the property was purchased by Pitkin County for $34 million from the previous landowners earlier this year using Open Space Program funds.

“This was a historic purchase for us,” said Dale Will, Acquisition and Special Projects director of Pitkin County Open Space and Trails. “That number is the largest amount we have ever spent on anything … but the property was a holy grail too. I’ve been working for Open Space for 26 years, and it had been weighing heavily on my mind the whole time as a property that needed to be protected.”

Will noted that purchasing the property, which was originally listed at $50 million in 2021 with no conservation easements or deed restrictions, was possible thanks to recently sold bonds and a $10 million loan from the Great Outdoors Colorado trust fund.

Since the purchase, Pitkin County and WLT have been working with the White River National Forest as the agency applies for Land and Water Conservation Funds to transfer property to public ownership as a National Forest, according to WLT Director of Marketing & Communications Margosia Jadkowski.

Read the full story from our partner at .

In the , which are jointly administered and stretch along the Continental Divide from Mount Blue Sky to the Wyoming border, permits are on sale at a cost of $20 per tree. Recreation.gov charges a $2.50 service fee on top of that.

Permits must be secured in advance. Cutting in the Sulphur Ranger District, located in Grand County, is allowed now. In the Canyon Lakes Ranger District (Larimer County), trees can be taken beginning Saturday. The permit period for both runs through Jan. 7.

Rules governing allowable tree cutting in the Arapaho and Roosevelt forests include:

• No cutting near developed recreation areas — campgrounds or picnic areas, for example — or residential areas
• No cutting in wilderness areas, the Fraser experimental forest, the Cache La Poudre wild and scenic river corridor or the Winter Park/Mary Jane ski areas
• No cutting within 75 feet of a road, trail, trailhead or developed recreation site
• Tree trunks must be six inches in diameter or less, and must be cut no more than six inches from the ground
• No cutting of trees marked with blue paint
• Cutting is prohibited in the Boulder and Clear Creek ranger districts

The has detailed rules and links to maps of the and ranger districts, designating areas where cutting is not allowed.

For the , which stretches across the central Colorado high country from Summit County to Glenwood Springs and beyond, permits ($10 per tree) are available at and at ranger stations in Dillon, Meeker, Minturn and Rifle. Rules in the White River include:

• Trees must be less than 15 feet tall, no greater than six inches in diameter, and must not be a Colorado Blue Spruce
• No cutting in wilderness areas or developed recreation areas, including Glenwood Canyon
• Must be 100 feet from main roads
• No cutting in the Camp Hale area, White River forest land within Gunnison County, lower Meadow Mountain near Minturn and fire closure areas of Grizzly and Deep creeks

The offers detailed rules and maps of five ranger districts — Aspen-Sopris, Blanco, Dillon, Eagle-Holy Cross and Rifle — designating areas where cutting is not allowed.

The Pike-San Isabel National Forests, located south and west of Denver, are jointly administered. , cost $20 for the Pike and $10 for San Isabel. Their rules differ from White River and the Arapaho-Roosevelt. Trees may be taken up to 15 feet tall or six inches in diameter at ground level. They must be 200 feet from main roads, recreation sites and campgrounds, and at least 50 feet from backcountry roads, trails and waterways. More detailed information can be found at .

For Colorado’s other six national forests — Grand Mesa, Gunnison, Rio Grande, Routt, San Juan and Uncompahgre — consult their websites.

Two more things: Fourth graders who hold are entitled to free Christmas trees in national forests, although they still must secure a cutting permit through recreation.gov. The tree is free but they still must pay the $2.50 service charge.

And while it may be obvious, just for the record, tree cutting in Rocky Mountain National Park is prohibited.

The Colorado Department of Transportation and Colorado Avalanche Information Center will close Colorado 82 between Aspen and Twin Lakes at 4 p.m. Saturday, CDOT said in a news release Thursday night.

Winter weather is forecast to bring high winds and snow to the pass, which reaches 12,095 feet as it crosses the Continental Divide.

Crews will evaluate conditions Tuesday morning to see if the pass can reopen or will start its winter closure, state officials said.

Independence Pass typically closes for the season in late October or early November, with the latest closure in the past decade taking place on Nov. 17, 2017, according to CDOT. The pass usually reopens around Memorial Day.

The pass is Colorado’s highest state highway and is known for epic views of the Sawatch Range and San Isabel and White River national forests — and for winding, narrow roads with steep drop-offs.

The rest area near the top of the pass, which has been closed since the spring of 2023, is finally set to reopen by the end of September.

Ongoing Interstate 70 construction at multiple locations on the pass will continue for a few more weeks until winter weather forces suspension of operations. Last year, that occurred on Nov. 22. The Vail ski area is scheduled to open this year on Nov. 14.

The new rest area will include updated restrooms capable of meeting present and future needs, a new drinking water system and expansion of the parking lots from 73 spaces to 248, according to CDOT spokeswoman Stacia Sellers.

That’s great news for winter backcountry users. In recent years, the recreation parking lot was frequently full on weekends by mid-morning.

Parking designated for recreation users will expand from 35 to 61 spaces. Rest area parking will increase from 32 to 53 spaces. In addition, there will be 19 “flex” spaces for recreation or rest area overflow and 95 snowmobile parking spaces.

Vail Pass has long been a favorite stop for summer tourists, too, but it’s the primary gateway to the Vail Pass Winter Recreation Area, which attracts 45,000 winter users annually. With Vail Pass marking its northeast corner and historic Camp Hale forming its southwest boundary, at 55,000 acres it contains more than 119 miles of motorized and non-motorized winter trails and six backcountry huts. User fees are required from November until May and are collected by the White River National Forest.

The rest area rebuild was scheduled to begin in May 2022, but was delayed a year because of “funding shortfalls,” according to Sellers. Short construction seasons in 2023 and 2024 also slowed the project.

The Interstate 70 project includes construction of an eastbound auxiliary lane with a widened inside shoulder, eastbound and westbound bridge replacements near mile marker 185, relocation of the Vail Pass bike path, westbound curve modifications with a widened inside shoulder near mile marker 188, five wildlife underpasses and a new avalanche mitigation fence, according to CDOT spokeswoman Austyn Dineen. Apart from the winter closure, CDOT expects construction to continue through the end of 2026.

Construction typically runs Monday through Friday mornings, but no lane closures are expected Labor Day weekend, Friday through Monday.

As of Tuesday night, the 90% contained Lee fire had scorched 138,844 acres between Meeker and Rifle. It grew by 1,086 acres on Monday, after multiple days with minimal to no growth.

The new acres consumed by the Lee fire bumped the wildfire from fifth-largest to fourth-largest in Colorado history, passing the 137,760-acre Hayman fire that sparked in 2002, according to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.

The Lee fire is now less than 200 acres away from becoming the third-largest wildfire on state record. Currently, that ranking belongs to the 2020 Pine Gulch fire that burned 139,007 acres.

Rain showers and thunderstorms hit the Western Slope again on Tuesday, bringing much-needed moisture to the state while also raising concerns about flash flooding over burn scars. Debris flowing off of the Lee fire burn scar briefly closed Rio Blanco County Road 5 on Tuesday afternoon, fire officials said.

Weeks of hot, dry and windy conditions have fueled rapid fire growth on other fires burning across western Colorado, charring thousands of acres outside of the Lee fire.

Jump to: Lee and Elk fires | Derby fire | Crosho fire

Lee and Elk fires, near Meeker

The largest wildfire burning in Colorado — now the fourth-largest ever recorded in the state — consumed more than 1,000 new acres after a week of slow growth and increased containment, fire officials said.

As of Tuesday night, the 138,844-acre Lee fire burning between Meeker and Rifle was 90% contained, .

All mandatory evacuation orders were lifted Saturday, and areas on pre-evacuation status were downgraded to monitoring status on Monday.

No new evacuation orders were issued Monday or Tuesday, despite the new fire growth. An updated for Rio Blanco and Garfield counties is available online.

The Lee fire and nearby Elk fire, which consumed more than 14,500 acres before reaching full containment last week, have together destroyed at least five homes and 14 outbuildings, fire officials said.

Extreme drought, high temperatures and strong winds fueled rapid growth on both fires, which were sparked by lightning west and east of Meeker on Aug. 2.

Thunderstorms and rain showers expected over and could continue until 3 a.m. Wednesday before a brief reprieve, according to the National Weather Service.

Rainy weather is expected to continue on Wednesday and Thursday, forecasters said.

While the rain is helpful, afternoon thunderstorms also increase the risk of gusty winds, frequent lightning and flash flooding along burn scars, fire officials said.

Derby fire, in Eagle County

A wildfire burning on the edge of Eagle and Garfield counties has scorched more than 5,300 acres, fire officials.

The is burning on 5,346 acres with 2% containment, up roughly 100 acres from Sunday and 1,200 acres from Saturday, fire officials said. Minimal fire growth was reported Tuesday.

“We have totally changed the pattern from hot and dry,” said meteorologist Ryan Fliehman in a . “I’m afraid we might get too much rain. We are still having chances of precipitation six days out.”

Rain has forced some fire crews to pull back, and crews need to take extra care to avoid damaging dirt roads, which have turned muddy, Operations Chief Ben Patton said.

What does it mean when a wildfire is “contained”? A look at how containment is determined.

The Derby fire was discovered on "remote, rugged terrain" in the White River National Forest, about 15 miles from Dotsero in Eagle County, on Aug. 17, .

It differs from the others burning in Colorado in that it started at higher elevations and has tried to push downhill at night.

Mandatory evacuations and pre-evacuations are in place for the northwest corner of Eagle County, including the town of Gypsum, and an eastern section of Garfield County.

Evacuations were lifted for Sweetwater Valley and Sheep Creek at 10 a.m. Monday, allowing limited access for residents to return home, . Red Dirt Creek Road, Sweetwater, and Colorado River Roads are set to reopen at 8 a.m. Wednesday under a pre-evacuation status, sheriff's officials said Tuesday.

Updated are available online.

At least one building has been destroyed by the wildfire, but it's unclear what type of building it was.

U.S. Forest Service officials will reopen parts of that were closed in Eagle and Garfield counties on Wednesday because of recent rain that has reduced fire activity.

The new closure area includes the area northeast of Sweetwater Lake and continues along the Derby Mesa Rim. A map of the closure area is available online.

Some , including north and west of Gypsum, north of Coffee Pot Road, west of the Colorado River, east of the White River National Forest boundary and south of Derby Creek.

Crosho fire, near Yampa

A wildfire burning on the edge of Rio Blanco and Routt counties, northeast of the Lee and Elk fires, is fully contained, fire officials announced Tuesday morning.

The was first discovered on Aug. 11 near Yampa and charred 2,073 acres before it was fully contained, fire officials said.

Most road closures around the wildfire were lifted Monday afternoon, fire officials said. Routt County Road 15 remains closed from the intersection of Routt County Road 17 to Crosho Lake.

Parts of the remain closed to the public, including the Chapman Reservoir Campground, Crosho Lake area and surrounding forest, according to the .

The division’s also found that fire departments are struggling to find enough money for essential equipment and personnel. The Colorado Fire Commission is currently studying ways to better fund the state’s 340 fire departments.

“Fire service is expensive and getting all the equipment you need is difficult, especially with property taxes being reduced it makes it even more difficult,” said Lisa Pine, the state’s fire training director, who conducted the survey.  “As we all know the cost of living in Colorado is very high and there has been a lot of work done to reduce how expensive it is to live here. But a consequence of that is it reduces the funding for your local fire department.”

The needs assessment also comes as Colorado’s wildfire season becomes year-round and the fires are more intense and burn more acreage.

“The workload continues to grow for the fire departments and the resources to go along with it just aren’t,” said Mike Morgan, director of the Division of Fire Prevention and Control. “We’re going to have to get creative to find solutions.”

For the 2024 survey, 57% of the state’s fire departments responded, reporting that they need:

• An additional 1,121 career and 1,142 volunteer firefighters over the next two years
• 753 new and replacement apparatuses over the next two years
• $25,282,489 over the next two years to buy needed equipment

Even while stretched thin, Colorado’s fire departments are able to respond to disasters,  Pine said.

“The one thing about the fire service is no matter what they have, they will do it professionally and with all the energy needed to protect their communities,” she said. “They’ll do it because that����ap what they signed up to do.”

In Colorado, most fire departments are funded through property taxes, although the Colorado General Assembly two years ago approved a measure that allows departments to petition voters for a sales tax increase. Still, funding is tight as the state wrestles with affordability for its residents as the cost of running a fire department gets more expensive each year.

In recent years, property values have soared and property taxes have climbed as well. But elected officials in 2024 capped how much taxing districts, including fire departments, can increases taxes each year and lowered assessment rates for homeowners, meaning fire departments cannot depend on increased property values for more revenue.

“It truly is a complex problem,” said Chief Mark Novak, who also serves on the state fire commission. “We have 64 counties with very different characteristics.”

In a mountain resort town such as Vail, the various taxes paid by tourists help fund Novak’s department. But a fire department in a farm community on the Eastern Plains will not be as wealthy because property taxes on agricultural land are much lower, he said.

And in a small community, a sales tax may not be all that lucrative because there are fewer people to spend money.

“Taxes are always a push/pull,” he said. “No community wants to have the highest sales tax in the region. Communities may be supportive of the fire service, but they don’t want to have a crazy high sales tax.”

That is why the state needs to let fire districts levy taxes and look for alternative funding sources such as placing a surcharge on property insurance or adding a line item on license plate fees for fire service, Novak said.

At Vail Fire, the department is planning to spend $1.6 million to buy a new fire truck in 2030, Novak said. That’s up from the $700,000 it cost to purchase  a new fire truck in 2020 — a 128% increase. Costs are increasing because steel and aluminum are getting more expensive and because of President Donald Trump’s uncertain tariffs policy.

It takes two to four years to get a fire truck once it is ordered, Novak said.

“There’s a significant issue with being able to maintain a fleet that����ap responsive or reliable,” he said. “Nobody wants to know the fire truck didn’t show up because it����ap broken.”

Fire departments also are finding it hard to recruit new members.

In larger cities, the applicant pool is smaller, meaning municipal fire departments are competing for the same recruits, Pine said.

“There was a time when you would have 1,500 to 2,000 applicants in the hiring cycle, but now it����ap in the hundreds,” she said. “Everybody is looking in the same pool of candidates.”

Meanwhile, rural departments find themselves short on volunteers as populations shrink and as families are busy meeting the demands of a modern household.

Colorado has almost 16,000 firefighters with an estimated 70% of them serving as volunteers, Pine said. But the number of people willing to volunteer is declining even as the demands on fire departments grow with the state’s population and its longer wildfire season.

“We have a lot of volunteer fire departments, and due to the strain on people’s time, we don’t have the volunteers that we used to,” she said. “It����ap hard for everybody to get firefighters.”

In Vail, Novak’s department operates with 44 full-time employees and an annual budget of $7 million, which is funded through a mix of property taxes and other tax sources in the mountain resort town. The fire department has needed a bigger staff for years, he said.

While the department’s statutory coverage area is 4.5 square miles, the actual range that Vail’s firefighters can travel on any given day is much larger, Novak said.

Vail Fire also covers a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 70, responding daily to car wrecks, semitrailer fires and other emergencies that can happen in heavy traffic over Vail Pass. The agency is the first to respond to any wildfires on its side of the White River National Forest because the closest U.S. Forest Service fire station is about 30 miles away, Novak said.

On Friday, the department was called within two hours to help a woman who fell off a waterfall and to hike a mile into the backcountry to rescue someone experiencing a medical emergency, he said.

“There’s lots of different things fire departments are doing besides going to fires,” Novak said. “The simplest way to put it is when someone has a problem and they don’t know what to do, they call the fire department.”

As of Monday morning, the had consumed 137,758 acres, equal to roughly 215 square miles. The burn area is just two acres short of Colorado’s fourth-largest wildfire on record — the 137,760-acre Hayman fire that sparked in 2002.

Other wildfires burning on Colorado’s Western Slope have scorched thousands of additional acres. Fire officials across the state have said hot, dry and windy conditions fueled the flames’ rapid growth.

Storms have brought much-needed rain to the drought-stricken Western Slope, . But those storms also increase the risk of lightning and strong winds — weather that can start fires and fan the flames of those already burning.

Jump to: Lee and Elk fires | Derby fire ����Stoner Mesa fire | Air quality impacts

Lee and Elk fires, near Meeker

Growth on the largest wildfire burning in Colorado — the fifth-largest ever recorded in the state — has slowed over the past week as firefighters increase containment around the flames.

As of Monday morning, the 137,758-acre Lee fire burning between Meeker and Rifle was 90% contained, .

The New York Fire Department Incident Management Team took over command of fighting the Lee fire from the Northern Rockies Team One on Monday morning.

“The fire has now been organized into two divisions, east and west, to better coordinate resources and operations,” said incoming Incident Commander Mike Izzo in a . Efforts are now shifting to mitigation and limiting future damage in the burn scar areas.

All mandatory evacuation orders were lifted Saturday, and on Monday afternoon zones in the pre-evacuation or yellow status were downgraded to ready or green status. An updated for Rio Blanco and Garfield counties is available online.

The Lee fire and nearby Elk fire, which consumed more than 14,500 acres before reaching full containment last week, have together destroyed at least five homes and 14 outbuildings, fire officials said. Izzo said supervision of the Elk fire burn area has been returned to local agencies.

Extreme drought, high temperatures and strong winds fueled rapid growth on both fires, which were sparked by lightning west and east of Meeker on Aug. 2.

Rain showers and cooler temperatures helped mitigate the flames last week, which allowed firefighters to steadily increase containment. More showers and thunderstorms are expected in the days ahead as Colorado braces for a monsoonal weather system.

Rain showers and thunderstorms are most likely near and between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Chances of precipitation range from 30% to 50%, forecasters said.

Chances of rain greatly increase later this week in both areas, jumping to 90% Tuesday afternoon and remaining there until 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to .

While the rain is helpful, afternoon thunderstorms also increase the risk of gusty winds, frequent lightning and flash flooding along burn scars, fire officials said. Flash flood warnings remain in effect Monday evening for the Elk, Lee and Crosho fire zones, according to the Rio Blanco County Sheriff.

Road closures tied to the smaller Crosho fire near Yampa were lifted Monday afternoon. That fire has burned 2,073 acres and is 81% contained.

Heavy rains caused flash flooding in the Lee fire burn area on Sunday afternoon, creating debris flow which blocked Piceance Creek Road, officials said in a .

Derby fire, in Eagle County

A wildfire burning on the edge of Eagle and Garfield counties has scorched more than 5,300 acres, fire officials said Monday.

The is burning on 5,346 acres with no containment, up roughly 100 acres from Sunday and 1,200 acres from Saturday, fire officials said.

“We have totally changed the pattern from hot and dry,” said meteorologist Ryan Fliehman in a . “I’m afraid we might get too much rain. We are still having chances of precipitation six days out.”

Firefighting crews have had success along much of the fire’s southern border, especially in the fire’s center or “belly,” said Ben Patton, operations chief. Rain has forced some crews fighting close in to pull back and crews are taking extra care to avoid damaging dirt roads, which have turned muddy.

Some firefighting lines could turn black, indicating containment within the next 24 hours, Patton predicted.

The storms will help dampen the quickly spreading wildfire but may create other problems on the newly charred landscape, like flash flooding, fire officials said.

The Derby fire was discovered on “remote, rugged terrain” in the White River National Forest, about 15 miles from Dotsero in Eagle County, on Aug. 17, .

It differs from the others burning in Colorado in that it started at higher elevations and has tried to push downhill at night.

Mandatory evacuations and pre-evacuations are in place for the northwest corner of Eagle County, including the town of Gypsum, and an eastern section of Garfield County.

Evacuations were lifted for Sweetwater Valley and Sheep Creek at 10 a.m. Monday, allowing limited access for residents to return home, . Those who need to access Sweetwater Valley and Colorado River Road are being asked to limit their driving to between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to avoid disrupting emergency operations, Eagle County Sheriff James Van Beek requested Monday evening.

“Please, we’re asking you, don’t touch anything. Don’t drive over the top of anything,” Van Beek requested of those returning to their homes. Red Dirt Creek Road remains closed.

Updated are available online.

At least one building has been destroyed by the wildfire, but it’s unclear what type of building it was.

The U.S. Forest Service also expanded closures in the in Eagle and Garfield counties, including southwest of Sweetwater Lake to the west rim of Deep Creek Canyon. Some , including north and west of Gypsum, north of Coffee Pot Road, west of the Colorado River, east of the White River National Forest boundary and south of Derby Creek.

Stoner Mesa fire, near Dolores

The is burning on 10,233 acres in a remote section of the San Juan National Forest, fire officials said Sunday.

Multiple areas around the fire — including Mavreeso, Gobble Creek, Fish Creek, Johnny Bull Creek, Dunton, Lizard Head, Horse Creek, Rico and Sulfer Creek — remain on “monitor” status, the step before pre-evacuation orders, .

All pre-evacuation orders were lifted Saturday, but sections of the  remain closed for the wildfire.

As of Monday, the lightning-sparked Stoner Mesa fire was 41% contained.

Air-quality impacts

near the Derby and Stoner Mesa fires were issued Sunday morning by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The warnings, which include southeastern Dolores County, northeastern Montezuma County, western Eagle County and eastern Garfield County, will remain active through at least 9 a.m. Monday.

Smoke will be heaviest in the areas near the fires, especially during the overnight and early morning hours, state health officials said. Incoming storm systems should help improve air quality near the fires.

Smoky conditions are most hazardous for young children, older adults and people with heart disease or respiratory illnesses, according to state health officials.