City of Colorado Springs pledges to improve evacuation times
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Following the 13 Investigates Special Report - Fleeing the Flames - Colorado Spring City Council President Tom Strand told13 Investigates that City Council is working with the Colorado Springs Police and Fire Departments to improve the city's preparedness when it comes to fire evacuations.
"If you don't have a plan moving forward. You are planning to fail," said Strand. "Failure to plan is planning to fail. We need a plan. We've currently got one, that evolved out of the wildfires we've had historically. I think our police chief, our fire marshal, and our fire chief are working hard on an updated plan."
During a work session on Monday, Colorado Springs City Council members were presented with the results from a highly anticipated fire evacuation study - paid for by the group Westside Watch and other private citizens.
The study, first reported on by 13 Investigates last week, is raising serious concerns about just how long it will take to get people in the city's most fire-prone neighborhoods to safety if a major wildfire were to break out.
According to Dr. Mike Robinson, one of the professors presenting to council on Monday, the studies used a traffic simulation called FLEET to find evacuation clearance times. It showed how long it takes to get everyone out of a particular neighborhood, district, or city during a disaster. The timer starts when the evacuation order is given, and it stops once the last person safely evacuates.
Robinson researched the clearance times for two specific regions - District 1 and the 'Broadmoor' District. District 1 contains neighborhoods from the Air Force Academy all the way down to Garden of the Gods, including Mountain Shadows. While the Broadmoor District, farther to the south includes, the Broadmoor Bluffs, the Broadmoor Resort, and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
In District 1, some of the most conservative models show it would take four hours and twenty minutes to evacuate every resident. That number reflects if everyone participating, responded within an hour, and there were 1.5 people in each vehicle. The FLEET simulations found that Garden of the Gods Road, Centennial Boulevard, Woodman Avenue, and Rockrimmon Boulevard were highly congested, and got worse the closer vehicles get to Interstate-25.
Meanwhile, in the Broadmoor District, FLEET simulations found that Cheyenne Boulevard and West Cheyenne Road were more problematic the closer vehicles got to Highway 115. The study finds that evacuees from the Broadmoor Resort, and to a lesser extent evacuees from Cheyenne Zoo, have a significant impact on the evacuation clearance times.
"If you add those people in, the time to evacuate the Broadmoor Region is greatly increased because of the number of vehicles that are added to the road," said Robinson. "It could be over five hours."
Colorado Springs City Council President Tom Strand says these numbers are unsurprising.
"I heard those numbers, and I think we are in a situation where we do have a lot of people in a condensed area," said Strand. "Our density has increased, and it is increasing almost every month."
According to the US Census, population in Colorado Springs has grown by 15% since 2010.
During the two hour presentation, the group Westside Watch also brought forth a proposed ordinance for City Council to look over.
The proposed ordinance includes a requirement to for the city to identify the current evacuation times in the city, mitigate any issues and conduct evacuation studies for all new developments, and provide Emergency Evacuation maps for hazards from all cardinal directions. Westside Watch is also calling on a moratorium for all building in certain fire-prone neighborhoods throughout the city, or at least until the ordinance is passed.
City Council President Strand says he is sympathetic to making the public safer, but he fears the ordinance's focus is on stalling development, not public safety.
"What is really going to be in the best interest of public safety, and what about the people that just wants to stop development and growth?" asked Strand. "I think some people have put information in this proposed ordinance that is really a stop the growth concept rather than what's in the interest of public safety."
City Council tabled the Q&A portion of the presentation for a later date, and is working to set a date for a special meeting in order to discuss. Staff are currently reviewing the proposed ordinance, and will present their findings to council in February.
