January 12, 2025

I have been watching the devastation caused by the wildfires in California. My heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to the communities, the residents, and those who have lost loved ones along with everything they own. It is a horrible tragedy to witness.

I feel that it is my duty, as your fire chief, to answer some of the questions I am receiving from friends, family, the media, and community members regarding the vulnerability of our community in the event of a devastating fire such as this. The main question I hear is “Could this happen here?” The sad answer is yes. We have yet to receive significant snow in most of our county, our fire risk is higher than usual for this time of year. The two previous summers with decent moisture and grass growth coupled with a potentially dry winter means we could face substantial wildfire risk this summer.

There are numerous local challenges to address and minimize the potential of what is occurring in Los Angeles. Number 1 on the list is wildfire mitigation. Every property owner, HOA, neighborhood, City, County, and federal land agency bears the responsibility to take wildfire mitigation seriously and invest in reducing the amount of fuel in and adjacent to populated areas.

On a positive note, this IS happening in our community. Every time you see a controlled burn on US Forest Service or BLM land there is a reduced threat of wildfire. In 2020 the City of Durango, La Plata County, and Durango Fire & Rescue formed the Wildfire Watershed Protection Fund (WWPF). This intergovernmental agreement has already accomplished several hundred acres of wildfire mitigation, pile burning, chipping, log removal, etc. in several subdivisions and on city and county lands. Focus has been placed on densely populated areas where wildfire mitigation can have the greatest impact for the greatest number of residents. Projects for 2025 and beyond continue this trend along with protecting the critical infrastructure (utilities, communications, drinking water, transportation, healthcare, etc.) that keeps our community viable.

These successes have been realized by the great partnerships with the City of Durango, La Plata County, USFS, BLM, the State of Colorado, multiple HOA’s, and adjoining fire districts. Unfortunately, this is not enough; we need to increase the speed and scale of mitigation projects to meet the ongoing threat of wildfire. Wildfires can be devastating; so are the long-term effects. Landslides, contaminated drinking water, loss of recreation opportunities, damage to educational and healthcare facilities, economic downturns are just a few of the potential effects occurring after a wildfire. We will never escape the risk of destructive wildfires, but all wildfires start small. If a wildfire occurs on or near a mitigated area that wildfire has a greater likelihood of remaining small.

After every major wildfire in our community, homeowners, politicians, and HOAs begin talking about mitigation and asking how to undertake projects to avoid the impacts of the next wildfire. Within six months, the criticality fades, wildfire fears lessen and thus commitments often fade. Our last significant wildfire was the 416 Fire in June of 2018. The last six years have seen a steady decline in the requests and demands for wildfire mitigation. When the next wildfire starts, which will happen, it will be too late. Mitigation must happen at the front end. Removing fuels and vegetation from the areas around your house, between houses and the forest (commonly referred to as the Wildland Urban Interface or WUI) is critically important. The State of Colorado is taking action to create a statewide WUI fire code. Our local agencies have participated in this, but like most statewide issues, trying to find a one-size-fits-all solution rarely meets the needs of every community. There isn’t support to enforce a code on existing structures, only on new structures. That helps future growth but does little to resolve our current threats and challenges.

There have been some concerning themes that are arising from the California fires that I want to briefly address, as they require everyone’s action to resolve. The answer to many of these questions lies within funding and legislation.

Staff
Do we have enough firefighters? The answer is a clear NO. While I cannot speak on behalf of each fire district in our County much less our state, we are all struggling for staff. Volunteerism is down across our County, our State, and our region. With a reduction in volunteers, that increases the pressure to hire additional paid staff.

Revenue Streams
Our funding has been continually cut by state measures intended to “cut taxes”. While this may be a great slogan and a well-intentioned goal, which is popular at the ballot box, the reality is that our preexisting revenues have been cut. The La Plata County fire districts are operating on at least $2 million dollars less than we did a few years ago with escalating annual costs. These tax cuts have allowed our state legislature to continually decrease the funding to fire districts across the state. Despite the substantial increase in property taxes, the reallocation of funds by the state legislature has left fire districts receiving less money than four years ago. To combat this, some fire districts need to continually return to the taxpayers to re-fund the cuts made at the state level. This is occurring just so fire districts can maintain the funding they had in the past. These elections cost approximately $40,000 to get on the ballot.

The funding allocated to fire districts is slated to continue dropping in the name of tax cuts. Durango Fire & Rescue is actively working with the State government, and legislative representatives for our region, the County, and the City to find solutions to address this decrease in revenue. We cannot be successful without the resources to recruit, hire, pay, train, and equip firefighters. Maintaining a professional and effective fire district isn’t cheap, even less so when facing the increased risk of wildfires that we have seen in the past 20 years.

Increased Costs
At no fault of the community or fire districts, costs are skyrocketing. Ladder trucks cost around $2 million, fire engines nearly $1 million, wildfire engines are now priced near $600,000, with ambulances nearing $400,000. These prices don’t include the supplies needed to outfit these vehicles. If that wasn’t enough, we are experiencing delivery times between two and five years for every fire or EMS apparatus that we order. Individual firefighter personal protective gear incurs a cost of around $20,000. None of these costs account for training, insurance, consumable supplies, or the stations to house them. Maintenance and peripheral equipment costs to perform our jobs are rising at the same rates. We are not in a cheap industry, but the funding to keep our firefighters trained and safely equipped must match the expectations of our community.

Water Systems
The fire districts do not own or operate any water systems in our community. Durango Fire & Rescue works with over 25 different water purveyors to supply hydrants and water. There is a finite supply of water in our community. We work with, and rely on, the individual water companies to build, install, maintain, and test their systems to ensure they are ready when we need them; however, the short answer is yes, we could run into the same water shortages if we had a similar event. We have had a single-family home where we drained a small subdivision’s water system to fight and contain it. When large wildfires occur, there is often disruption to power, this means that pumps and infrastructure that distribute water is no longer operational.

What Can You Do?

Support Wildfire Mitigation
This includes mitigation on the forest, the BLM, your subdivision, and your neighborhood. Participate in community wildfire mitigation events.

Mitigate Your Property
The only solution is to reduce the buildup of fuels to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires. Durango Fire & Rescue can inspect your home and provide guidance at no cost. These inspections are confidential and have no expectations from you. Once Durango Fire & Rescue has met with you, we will work to match you with appropriate grants that can offset wildfire mitigation costs.

Learn about Wildfire
Contact Durango Fire & Rescue or your local fire district to learn about defensible space and what low-cost options are available to you. For more information about evacuation lists, and what to do in the event of a wildfire, visit our Wildfire Division page.

Fund Your Fire District Commiserate with the Level of Service You Expect
This allows us to hire firefighters, build necessary stations, buy the needed equipment, and pay our staff a competitive wage to keep them in Durango.

Sign Up to Volunteer for Your Local Fire Department
Three of the four fire districts in La Plata County have a volunteer program. We need your help.

La Plata County is a beautiful place to live and recreate. We have been lucky, the wildfires we have had in our community were early in the season when state, regional, and federal resources were plentiful and available. We have strong and effective relationships with the State of Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control to provide aircraft and additional resources when needed. The San Juan National Forest continues to be a great partner and works with the community together throughout the year to promote the common goal of fire safety. The four fire districts in La Plata County meet monthly, train together, and have a strong working relationship to provide you service. Despite this, our threat remains. We need funding and support.

The solution and success lie in the hands of our local community. We need your help. We need you to take ownership of your property and realize that your property affects all those properties around it. It is only together that we can find a solution to the significant wildfire threat facing our community.

Sincerely,

Randy Black
Fire Chief
Durango Fire Protection District