As the two-year anniversary of the Marshall Fire approaches, Boulder officials are contemplating new measures to bolster the city’s ability to withstand wildfires, including new regulations.
“There’s been a whole bunch of things that have really changed and picked up steam,” said Boulder’s wildland fire chief, Brian Oliver, of the two years since Marshall, “which is really cool.”
Though the City of Boulder escaped the Marshall Fire, its proximity to the flammable foothills and the density of its neighborhoods provide similar ingredients that brought devastation to Louisville and Superior.
The Marshall Fire spread mainly through home-to-home ignition. Embers from burning grass and wooden fences landed on wooden decks and vegetation near homes and grew to flames. Radiant heat put off by burning homes then ignited neighboring houses.
This is why home hardening, the process of making homes more resistant to fire, is one of the most important actions a community can undertake. Building with fire-resistant materials and maintaining a “defensible space” around a home — free of flammable vegetation and plants such as junipers — drastically decreases the chance of a neighborhood burning.
And according to Boulder’s wildland fire chief, home hardening could soon be a requirement of living in our fire-prone city.
Oliver said he believes a city ordinance is “in the cards in the next couple years.”
“Junipers within 30 feet of a home is going to be a no-go,” Oliver said, giving an example of a potential building code update. Junipers are one of the most popular landscaping choices in Boulder and also one of the most flammable.
Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett agreed. “It’s definitely something we’re thinking about,” he said, providing the caveat that “we’re not in the process of creating new regulations right now.
“I think it’s very likely we’re going to need to update our codes in the upcoming years,” he said.
Brockett said when the city council decides to make home hardening mandatory, it will rely on the wildland department for recommendations on what measures would be most beneficial.
Oliver said the biggest benefit would come from requiring homeowners to clear the first five feet around their homes, known as the “home ignition zone.” Because of Boulder’s topography, Oliver said, the biggest risk to town is a westerly wind carrying embers from a fire in the foothills. When those embers hit the side of a house and fall into flammable mulch, it poses a significant risk of home ignition.
“It’s the most bang for the buck,” Oliver said, explaining that gravel, sand or flagstone for five feet around a home’s base would do the trick.
“If you could keep that home ignition zone free of vegetation, that one to five feet, that would save the majority of the houses.”
The city climate tax, approved by Boulderites in November 2022, which generates an estimated $6.5 million a year, is helping set the stage for a more fire-resilient Boulder.
This tax, levied against utility providers, has allowed the fire department to make several hires to help residents harden their homes through the city’s home assessment program. The program brings a fire representative to Boulderites’ homes and lets them know where on their properties has the greatest risk. Oliver said while 2023 was spent getting the program set up, starting in 2024 the department will begin mitigating risk in Boulder’s 1,400 homes in the wildland-urban interface.
“What gets us are those embers and those spot fires landing in receptive fuel right next to a home,” Oliver said. “If you can keep those embers landing on rock or concrete instead of landing on receptive mulch or grass, most of the problem is being taken care of.”
From the climate tax, some $500,000 is set aside to help those who want to mitigate fire risk on their properties but don’t have the means. Next year will see that money start to be distributed.
Without regulation mandating home mitigation, Oliver said the best thing the fire department can do is help one homeowner complete hardening with the hope that neighbors take notice.
“The number one thing to get people to do home hardening or fire mitigation is peer pressure,” Oliver said. “It’s not a grant program, it’s the whole ‘keep up with the Joneses.”
Prescribed burns on city land
In addition to hardening homes, reducing the risk of a catastrophic fire in the open space surrounding the city is crucial. One of the best ways to do this is through prescribed burns. But the City of Boulder has not done as much of this as it could, for obvious reasons.
“Prescribed fire, while one of the best resource bangs for the bucks for not only forest health but fire mitigation, is a real easy one to say no to or push to the back burner,” Oliver said. “Because while there’s a high reward, it’s a risky endeavor.”
The largest and most destructive wildfire in New Mexico’s history, the 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, was the result of an escaped prescribed burn and an improperly extinguished slash pile burn.
Despite the risk, Oliver said an 1,800-acre burn plan is “approved and signed and ready to burn” on a swath of city land southwest of the intersection of Highways 93 and 170.
Chris Wanner, vegetation stewardship manager for the city’s Open Space and Mountain Parks department, said those 1,800 acres will not burn all at once, but over the next 10 years or so, in 25- to 100-acre chunks.
“It’s kind of a long-term plan,” Wanner said. “And depending on the ecological goals, it could be spring burns or fall burns, followed up with grazing in some areas. There’s a mix of objectives out there.”
Wanner said this planned burn will happen in tandem with thinning projects. Regular visitors to Shanahan Ridge may have noticed a more open forest, thanks to OSMP efforts this past summer. Wanner said the climate tax has allowed OSMP to expand its seasonal forestry crew and retain some crew members year-round so thinning can continue without pause, especially in areas where Boulder’s neighborhoods meet flammable landscapes.
“Looking in those areas where open space and homes are in close proximity, if there are areas where we can implement mowing or grazing or other kinds of fuels treatments, that’s going to be a big focus of the next year or two,” Wanner said.
But Oliver is still concerned about the liability associated with prescribed fire. He said he’s leading a meeting in early 2024, bringing together representatives from the city manager’s office, Boulder Fire-Rescue and the open space and climate initiatives departments. In addition to discussing the optimal use of prescribed fire, Oliver said he wants to use the meeting to ensure that if a burn doesn’t go as planned, the city won’t leave him unsupported.
He cited an incident in Oregon where a U.S. Forest Service burn boss — the person leading the prescribed burn — was arrested by a local sheriff when the burn moved off federal land onto a private ranch.
“I want to make sure the city has my back,” Oliver said. “If the city truly believes that prescribed fire is a tool we want to continue to use, we need to build some policy level guidance around it.”
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