Colorado Lawmakers Make First Pass on Wildfire Bill

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Colorado lawmakers passed a bill to increase wildfire mitigation efforts, just a month since a devastating fire tore through suburbs north of Denver, destroying more than 1,000 homes and businesses and killing at least one person.

The bill heard Tuesday afternoon in the Senate Local Government committee, creates a working group of federal, state and local fire and public safety officials to increase wildfire education and develop yearly outreach campaigns on wildfire awareness and mitigation for those in the wildland-urban interface.

The measure passed with two Republican members voting against it and will go to the Appropriations Committee before it’s heard on the Senate and House floors.

Democratic Sen. Pete Lee, one of the bill’s sponsors called the measure “proactive and preventative” and said the goal is to “educate and motivate” homeowners on how to take care of their properties and protect against fires in the wildland-urban interface.

Republican Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer pushed back on the bill’s use of state funds to solve issues she sees as pertaining to local government and where the disaster actually occurs. Kirkmeyer asked the committee why hundreds of thousands of dollars should be used for fire awareness and mitigation plans that have existed since the 1990s.

“Why didn’t all these others plans work and why are we supposed to put another $820,000 into a national campaign when basically this is a campaign that’s already been out there?” she said.

Matt McCombs, director of the Colorado State Forest Service testified in support of the bill and said the funds would help the department increase its impact and reach for wildfire education and resources for individual homeowners who may be affected by future fires.

“While the public is aware we have wildfires, they don’t necessarily understand the depth of what perhaps their responsibilities are as a property owner, nor do they necessarily understand that they live in the (wildland-urban interface), said Democratic Sen. Tammy Story, a bill sponsor. “The Marshall fire certainly changed how we look at this.”

The Legislature is considering several other fire-related measures that would increase funding for local volunteer fire departments, give tax credits to people who do their own fire mitigation and another that would require new fire disaster insurance and casualty coverage.

December’s fire caused nearly $513 million in damages and state lawmakers have promised to use this legislative session to address issues raised in the fire’s aftermath such as affordable housing shortages, insurance coverage and plans for urban fire mitigation.

Experts say similar events will become more common as climate change warms the planet and suburbs grow in fire-prone areas. Ninety percent of Boulder County is in severe or extreme drought, and it hadn’t seen substantial rainfall since mid-summer.

The fire spanned 9.4 square miles (24 square kilometers) and ranks as the most destructive in state history in terms of homes and other structures destroyed and damaged.

Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.