Report: More Fuel Than Expected In Colorado Fire

A team of specialists says firefighters underestimated how much unburned vegetation remained at the site of a prescribed burn blamed for triggering a deadly wildfire.

The review released Monday found the 200-foot-wide buffer around the prescribed burn wasn’t big enough to contain the embers when 55 mph gusts hit four days later.

William Bass, supervisor of Wyoming’s Bighorn National Forest, led the review. He said none of the factors would have triggered the wildfire individually but instead combined to create the disaster.

The Colorado State Forest Service conducted the prescribed burn on March 22 in the foothills southwest of Denver.

The fast-moving wildfire tore through a forested subdivision. Three people were found dead at their homes.