When, where, how will additional $20 million for wildfire prevention be used in Colorado Springs?

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Friday's close call with disaster from the Silver Charm Fire may heighten the public's sense of urgency to increase the amount of wildfire mitigation, or prevention, in the Colorado Springs area.

Authorities have an additional $20 million for that purpose, approved in a ballot measure by voters last fall; the money came from excess tax revenues that by law have to be refunded to voters unless they allow the city to retain it the surplus.

The Colorado Springs Fire Department ultimately determines how the money will be used, with input from a newly formed Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee.

Twelve members are on the committee, including officials from Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Fort Carson's Fire Department, the U.S. Forest Service, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and three citizens.

The committee held its first meeting in February but made no decisions about how the funding will be used. Fire Department Capt. Mike Smaldino said that the committee will announce its decisions in May.

“It’s not just one agency or one person deciding," he explained. "It’s that collective conversation to make sure that everybody’s going to be prioritizing the way we should.”

Authorities said that Friday's fire burned around 17 acres -- much of it in a creek bed thick with trees, brush and grasses -- that goes through The Farm neighborhood slightly northeast of the Interstate 25/Interquest Parkway interchange.

Firefighters kept the blaze from spreading to an area of new homes adjacent to the burned area, and said that a welding accident at a nearby construction site is the possible cause.

The value of proactively removing excess trees, grasses and other vegetation to prevent or reduce the spread of a wildfire was proven in November of 2020, during the Bear Creek Fire that burned 26 acres on the city's southwest side and forced the evacuation of 235 homes.

Authorities cite prior mitigation work in the open space that burned as a major factor in avoiding damage to the homes.

Lisa Bates, who lives near the Silver Charm burn scar, expressed mixed feelings about the plan to increase mitigation efforts.

“Seeing all of this devastation is somewhat heartbreaking, but we do need to do mitigation," she said. "I would hope that it wouldn’t be in areas like this, because we need all the green space that we have.”

But that green quickly turns brown and becomes flammable in the drought conditions currently affecting southern Colorado.