High fire danger, blizzard warnings on same day in Colorado

Only in Colorado can you get a blizzard warning in the weather forecast, on the same day part of the state experienced record high temperatures.

That was the case Tuesday.

Fire crews were on alert for red flag warnings, even as road crews prepared for another round of winter weather expected Wednesday.

At Fire Station 9 on Garden of the Gods Road in Colorado Springs, a dispatcher’s call cut short a KRDO NewsChannel 13 interview with Lt. Pete Johnston.

“Great. We’re getting tabbed to a grass fire,” he said.

Fortunately, the response didn’t last long and the Station 9 crew returned.

“We haven’t had too many grass fire calls,” Johnston said.

Meanwhile, there was a similar development at U.S. Forest Service Dispatch Headquarters in Pueblo.

“We got a really vague report of smoke in the area of Alamosa,” a dispatcher said. “We’ll get someone to check it out.”

Local fire agencies said that fortunately, this early fire season isn’t as active as it was at this time last year, when nearly a dozen wildfires were reported.

Still, the dry and windy conditions leading to red flag warnings are a bit overwhelming to Daniel and Rosemary Offenhauer, who just moved to Pueblo from the Denver area.

“We haven’t had any rain to make the forest any moister — down here, especially,” said Daniel Offenhauer. “And as we’re walking on this back road, we see all the cactus and the dry grass and the snowpack doesn’t really alleviate our worry about the fire danger.”

The Forest Service said many people may be fooled into thinking lower elevations got the plentiful snow that fell at higher elevations.

“This spring isn’t as dry as last spring and fire behavior isn’t as active, so far,” said Forest Srvice spokesman Ralph Bella. “Last year was an extreme fire season. We’re trending toward more of a normal fire season. But then, moisture could stop and we’d be right back in a high fire season at any time.”

Fire officials expect a less active fire season overall this year. But they don’t expect the benefits of the approaching winter storm to last long.

“The finer fuels, the grasses, they’ll dry out within an hour of direct sunlight and 80-degree temperatures,” Johnston said. “It takes one hour for them to dry out and be receptive to a flammable source.”

Knowing that is enough to keep the average citizen on edge, let alone firefighters. But they said they’re not on high alert yet.

The Forest Service said the upcoming storm — like the one we had a few weeks ago — did little more than lower the fire danger for just a couple of days. And the deeper we get into April, the more likely we’ll get less of the moisture we need.

The Pueblo dispatch center has already seen six wildfires this early in the season, and the causes of those fires are unknown. So firefighters remind everyone to be careful.

“If you’re doing any kind of outdoor burning, make sure you do it in an educated fashion,” said Ryan Vincent, an assistant fire management officer with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. “Don’t start a fire on a windy day, Put your fires out — completely dead out.”

Rosemary Offenhauer said she and her husband have a plan if the wildfire season becomes more active.
 
“We’ll find a way to leave this area, and try to find a place that’s cooler with a little bit more moisture — temporarily, at least,” she said.