AURORA | A wet spring and early summer combined with an especially dry late summer and early fall has local fire officials worried.
“The summer was really wet so everything has really grown, all the fuels are really tall,” said Julie Brooks, a spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County sheriff’s office, which is in charge of wildland firefighting in unincorporated parts of the county. “And because we haven’t had rain in a bit, they are all very dry.”
With that dangerous combination in mind, Arapahoe County Sheriff David Walcher announced a fire ban Sept. 22. In the following days Jefferson and Boulder counties followed suit.
Typically, local officials announce fire bans much earlier in the summer, often with an eye toward camping season and Fourth of July fireworks.
This year, with heavy rains early in the season, Brooks said the sheriff’s office opted not to institute a ban.
“The summer was really wet so everything has really grown, all the fuels are really tall,” said Julie Brooks, a spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County sheriff’s office, which is in charge of wildland firefighting in unincorporated parts of the county. “And because we haven’t had rain in a bit, they are all very dry.”
But with especially-dangerous conditions — and windy afternoons seemingly daily — Brooks said the late-arriving ban was important.
Officials haven’t said when the ban may be lifted.
In Aurora, fire officials have opted not to issue a more-serious ban than the one in place that bars agricultural burns and large bonfires that require permits.
But AFD Commander Cindy Andersen said fire officials in recent weeks have worried about residents not realizing the risk this late in the season.
“I think people are not cognizant right now of the degree of danger,” she said.
Andersen echoed what Brooks said and said the combination of a wet start and dry end to the season has upped the risk.
“There is a lot of fuel,” she said.
Aurora fire officials are monitoring the conditions and could change the fire ban if conditions worsen, she said.
In Arapahoe County, the ban includes fireworks, campfires; fires in constructed, permanent fire pits or fire grates within developed camp and picnic grounds or recreation sites, charcoal fueled fires, warming fires; fires in outdoor wood burning stoves (chimney sparks or embers); the prescribed burning of fence lines, fence rows, fields, farmlands, rangelands, wildlands, trash or debris.
It also means no campfires at Cherry Creek State Park, but Brooks noted that campers who want to use a grill that keeps the fire contained can do so as they use charcoal or gas — no wood that could send embers into the air.
That may be disappointing for campers who prefer a campfire, but Brooks said it’s necessary, especially considering how close the park is to some homes.
“If a fire takes off in some of our wildland areas surrounded by homes, it’s hard to stop,” she said.