{"id":192,"date":"2026-05-12T15:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=192"},"modified":"2026-05-12T15:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:04:11","slug":"a-really-bad-fire-season-boulder-county-official-warns-conditions-are-already-in-place-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=192","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A really bad fire season\u2019? Boulder County official warns conditions are already in place"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Boulder County is heading into spring with dry fuels, frequent red flag days and conditions that have already prompted public safety power shutoffs this year. A record-breaking March heatwave, collapsing snowpack and unusually early melt have only intensified concerns, pushing conditions into what is typically not seen until early summer.<\/p>\n

Read more Boulder crews respond to vegetation fire near Chautauqua<\/a><\/p>\n

For fire crews, this isn\u2019t a one-off anomaly. It\u2019s part of a longer shift toward earlier, longer and more unpredictable fire seasons.<\/p>\n

We spoke with Boulder County Assistant Fire Manager Dustin Blair about what crews are seeing on the ground, how current conditions compare to past years and what residents should keep in mind as fire risk builds. <\/p>\n

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.<\/p>\n

So are we expecting a bad fire year?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s always our expectation on the fire side of things. But as of now, unless we see some moisture, we are setting up for what could potentially be a bad fire season. If people are extremely cautious, and we don\u2019t get a bunch of dry lightning and fires don\u2019t start, then we don\u2019t have a problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But yes, we are geared up \u2014 if we have ignition sources and everything lines up \u2014 for what could potentially be a really bad fire season.<\/p>\n

What has this winter been like for crews on the ground doing fire suppression and mitigation?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

What winter? We\u2019ve seen very little moisture. The dead down fuel is dry. We did have decent snow last year, and a good grass crop. So it all dies, and it\u2019s all still there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Winter is the time to burn slash piles. I don\u2019t remember the last time we burned, which is pretty sad. We haven\u2019t burned at all. We\u2019ve never not been able to burn slash piles in the mountains because of lack of snow, and that has happened this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re definitely in some fairly uncharted territory with this dry of a winter coming into spring. All the fire departments in the county are getting very sick of having to deal with this record-dry fire weather. But that\u2019s the job, so we do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How do this year\u2019s conditions compare to what you\u2019ve seen in the past?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We see this all the time, but not this time of year. We usually have a lot of moisture in the bank, so that when we go into the summer, we have tall green grass. It takes a lot longer to dry out, and we don\u2019t have as long of a fire season.<\/p>\n

Our fire season is typically in the fall here on the Front Range, when we have big storms that bring the big cold fronts and push big winds. We usually bank on having moisture on the ground to stop some of these big wind events from bringing fire danger. We don\u2019t have that right now. So we\u2019re going into the summer without much moisture in the bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can things get drier?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if they can. We\u2019re already down to single-digit relative humidities, which is unbelievably dry. Our fuels are fully cured in the grass, which means they\u2019re fully available to burn. Our 1,000-hour fuels are down to 8%. They can get lower, but it\u2019s very ready to burn. I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re at peak dryness right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What do Boulder County residents need to be aware of as we head into the spring and summer?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The normal day-to-day things that people want to do, they need to be cautious with fire. So if you want to have a charcoal barbecue, make sure it\u2019s not by any grass. If I pull over the car to look at the map or to answer the phone and I\u2019m sitting in dry grass, turn the car off, or get out of the dry grass first. Find a place void of vegetation to park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Goat Trail wildfire in Boulder prompts evacuation warning in North Boulder<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going out in the woods and you want to have a campfire, make sure you check with your local authority. A lot of our land in the county is Forest Service, and so folks have to go to the Forest Service sites and make sure that they understand what they can and can\u2019t do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fire should be on everybody\u2019s mind when they go out into a susceptible area when recreating. How do I get out of this place if a fire were to start? Don\u2019t hesitate to leave if you see smoke, especially in the woods. People need to be thinking about fire until these conditions subside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Are current conditions similar to the conditions that caused the Marshall Fire?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s tough to compare things to that. I caution myself saying anything is trending towards Marshall, because everything lines up perfectly with that. The winds were 100 miles an hour, and the window of really bad days where we have all those things lined up is pretty short. Still, on those days of alignment, we\u2019re very, very cautious.<\/p>\n

Should people be extremely cautious, and somewhat wary and afraid, on dry, windy days? Yes. On other days, when it\u2019s just dry and not windy, we\u2019re not going to see large fire growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What are you expecting in terms of moisture this spring?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Weather and moisture are so hard to predict. Our forecasters try their absolute best, but even they\u2019ll tell you the models are really rough until about 24 hours out, and even then, changes happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Right now, there\u2019s not a high confidence in moisture coming in at a large enough scale to highly offset what we already have for dry conditions. If we do have a monsoon, we hope it\u2019s a big one. But in the fire world, we\u2019re preparing like it won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

Xcel has shut off power preemptively three times since December. Has that helped prevent fires?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to the shutoffs, strictly from the fire suppression side, we have noticed that we don\u2019t get as many starts on those days. We did have numerous trees across lines, and the fire starts just haven\u2019t been there because the power is off. I would attribute some of that to the fact that those lines weren\u2019t hot \u2014 they weren\u2019t turned on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is there a concern that there is not going to be enough water to firefight with?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In wildland fire, we\u2019re pretty good at pulling from random sources of water, from ponds and reservoirs. We talk with our Public Works partners, and we haven\u2019t heard necessarily yet that we\u2019re going to have an issue. But we\u2019ll see late summer into the fall. That could be a different story.<\/p>\n

The mountain pine beetle outbreak is expected to intensify this summer in dry conditions. What does that mean for fire risk?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t own any land on the fire management side, so we go to our land manager, County Parks and Open Space. They\u2019re dealing with the bark beetle. We\u2019ll deal with the effects of the bark beetle. I\u2019ve worked on numerous national forests. Some of them were ravaged by bark beetle. And those effects can be very long-lasting, not just immediate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wildfire\u2019s the only natural disaster where we have a workforce that fights against it on the ground. We are working against the force of nature, and there\u2019s times when we can\u2019t do enough. We can\u2019t do enough fire mitigation. There\u2019s just not enough workforce. We just get people out of the way. So we\u2019ll see. This bark beetle is going to be interesting. We could have very bad effects from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Boulder drops lawsuit against FAA following unfavorable federal court ruling<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a dry winter, a county fire manager explains what crews are seeing and how residents should think about risk heading into spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","tag-wildfire"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018A really bad fire season\u2019? 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