For 13 years, Charlie Womer climbed to the top of Mehoopany fire lookout tower in Wyoming County to watch over miles of countryside. The tower went up in 1923. Womer was born four years later. Fire season is changing for …
When a forest fire threatens your house and you have minutes to run, do you know what you plan to grab besides your family? The photo albums? Computer hard drive? Tax records? Gun collection? Clean underwear? The U.S. Forest Service …
Things haven’t gone as bad as they could have so far in 2016 coming off last year’s record-setting wildfire season in the Western U.S., according to a report out today detailing wildfire risks to properties in the Western U.S. The …
A new study of Colorado’s devastating 2012 Waldo Canyon wildfire demonstrates that prompt and effective action can significantly change the outcome of fires that occur in areas where residential communities and undeveloped wildlands meet. The study by the U.S. Department …
In 2002, while the Missionary Ridge Fire was burning almost 73,000 acres in southwest Colorado, the Front Range was closely watching the Hayman Fire, which burned more than 138,000 acres. For Jeff Bork and his wife, Pat Lavin, who were …
A new U.S. Forest Service report shows the continued expansion of housing development near forests, an area referred to as the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), with direct implications for the cost of wildfire fighting. Increasing densities of people and infrastructure in …
Colorado homeowners living in high-risk wildfire areas should be charged fees, and officials need to adopt statewide building requirements to address destructive fires, according to recommendations Monday from a group convened by Gov. John Hickenlooper. The recommendations seek to shift …
A state task force is mulling a plan that would assign more than 550,000 Colorado homes in wildfire-prone areas a risk rating that would be provided to insurance companies. The task force also discussed plans Wednesday for a fee on …
A Montana judge has invalidated Helena’s 2008 fire ordinance restricting exposed wood building materials and requiring fire-resistant roofs on new or extensively renovated buildings. The Independent Record reports in a story on Sunday that District Judge Kathy Seeley made the …
The mountains still may be covered in snow, but officials already are preparing for another busy wildfire season in Utah amid growing concern over the cost to battle them. State officials told the Deseret News that the upcoming season could …