As the pandemic continued throughout the year, Colorado simultaneously faced a record-breaking fire season as the Cameron Peak, East Troublesome and Pine Gulch fires became the three largest wildfires in the state’s history — all within the same year.
But at the end of the fire season the Cameron Peak Fire, which burned throughout the summer and well into the fall, came out as the recorded largest wildfire in Colorado history. After burning 208,913 acres and destroying over 400 buildings, the Cameron Peak Fire was called contained Dec. 2, four months after igniting.
As the county moves forward, Lori Hodges, director of emergency management for the county, reflected on the record-breaking blaze and what the road forward is going to entail.
What was it like dealing with this fire as it grew exponentially throughout the fall?
A typical fire in Larimer County is usually over within a few weeks but this fire came in waves over the course of four months, which was exhausting. The fire kept changing due to terrain and wind conditions, leading to the fire threatening every one of our mountain communities. As emergency managers, our job was to anticipate changing conditions and to plan for any impacts from the fire. We ended up utilizing every plan we have created over the last few years to manage this event, including emergency notifications, GIS (geographic information system mapping), evacuation and sheltering, feeding, public information management, resource management and credentialing for re-entry operations. This was the event that you plan for but always hope doesn’t happen.
What were the greatest hurdles and challenges in conquering this fire?
One of the biggest challenges of this fire was obviously COVID-19. In a typical year, firefighters would come from throughout the nation and immediately begin working. Briefings would occur multiple times throughout the day with various partners, and state and federal agencies would work within our Emergency Operations Center to ensure good coordination. With COVID, our EOC was entirely virtual, making it more difficult to coordinate activities. Additionally, the fire camps had to have COVID protocols and had to segregate fire personnel into small teams to keep outbreaks from occurring throughout the fire ground. Due to the extended nature of this event, the fire caused an enormous strain on our community. The evacuations were extended much longer than normal, the air quality remained poor throughout the entire late summer and fall, and multiple communities remained threatened for weeks and months.
What are the lessons the county and the community should take away from this record-breaking fire and what is the county looking at for recovery?
As everyone learned during this event, a fire can move quickly and threaten communities within minutes. Because of this, every community member should have a plan for evacuating due to fire — including shelter for their large or small animals, a place to stay for the family, digitizing documents that might be required, such as insurance, and having a conversation with their insurance company about coverage to ensure the home is not under-insured.
Recovery will be long and extensive. The fire burned mostly on public lands where the USFS (United States Forest Service) or RMNP (Rocky Mountain National Park) will be the leads. It also burned along the Poudre River watershed and the Big Thompson watershed, leading to mitigation needs to ensure our water supply and quality. Additionally, due to the terrain within the fire area, and the burn severity of some areas, flooding will be a major concern for communities downstream. Larimer County is conducting a risk assessment this winter of the entire fire area and will set priorities in late January for future mitigation efforts, which could include things such as upgrading culverts or aerial mulching, much like we saw after the High Park Fire.
Looking back, looking ahead
Through Jan. 4, the Reporter-Herald will be asking a variety of community members to look back on 2020 and what is ahead for 2021. All readers are welcome to share their thoughts on this most challenging year through commenting on these stories as they appear on the Reporter-Herald Facebook page, calling the RH Line at 970-635-3637 or sending letters to the editor via news@reporter-herald.com.
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December 28, 2020 at 04:55AM
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Year-end: Cameron Peak Fire breaks county and state wildfire record - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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