State officials predict Colorado will see 鈥渘ormal鈥� fire conditions this summer.
鈥淲e do not anticipate anything other than a busy year,鈥� Stan Hilkey, the executive director for the Colorado Department of Public Safety, said at the state wildfire outlook press conference Thursday.
Southeast Colorado faces heightened wildfire risk the rest of this month. The southwestern part of the state will be at high risk later in the summer due to drought and dry conditions. But even with 鈥渘ormal鈥� predictions statewide, officials believe there could be around 6,000 wildfires with a potential 160,000 acres at risk of burning.
鈥淭oday, it's more of a question of when, not if, a fire will affect our communities,鈥� Governor Jared Polis said. To fight this, the state wants to be aware of fires before they get too big. It鈥檚 invested into two multi-mission aircraft that have special cameras that can detect emerging fires from 22,000 feet in the air.
鈥淲e'll find an ember shower from a single tree lightning strike that when you take the camera off, you can't even see it with your naked eye,鈥� Mike Morgan, who directs the Colorado Division of Wildfire Control and Prevention, said.
Morgan believes crews have caught 1,200-1,500 fires with that type of aircraft that the public didn鈥檛 even know about.
State officials made the investment in their own helicopters and tankers in an effort to take fate into their own hands after relying on other states last year for aerial resources. Colorado purchased another Firehawk helicopter that can drop around 1,000 gallons of water per drop. The Firehawk will not be available until August. It鈥檚 also invested in a large air tanker.
鈥淲e didn't want to compete with all of the other (states) like last year, when we had most of the nation at鈥he highest preparedness level,鈥� Morgan said.
Morgan said his team has not changed its strategy since those resources proved to be successful last year.
Local agencies are also relying on the through the state division of fire prevention and control, where the closest available resource is sent to support wildfire suppression free of charge. The goal is to get on the ground and stop fires instead of getting immediately into the legalities of who oversees the land and how much money an agency has.
鈥淲e have the ability to pre-position those resources and fight fire without worrying about who's paying for what,鈥� Morgan said. 鈥淚f we need to sort out a cost share agreement, (we) do it after the threat to life and property is over, not during that.鈥�
Officials also expressed confidence in their firefighting capability for the summer, despite .
Doug Vilsack, the Colorado state director with the Bureau of Land Management, said they鈥檝e hired 54 seasonal staff, which is close to their usual number. Troy Heithecker, the regional forester for the Rocky Mountain Region of the Forest Service, said they have around 560 staff members and are hopeful that they鈥檒l get enough at an upcoming hiring event to reach their normal number of 760.
Polis said more than 500 AmeriCorps members are ready to do forest treatment and fire suppression, but he does not know the status of the program at this time due to .
Morgan added that while there are around 18,000 federal firefighters, there鈥檚 a vast, shared network of local and state firefighters 鈥� more than a million nationwide.
鈥淲e know it's an interagency system,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he 1,200-pound gorilla, if you will, is local governments. That's where our firefighting resources are.鈥�
With 90% of fires categorized as human-caused, officials are calling on residents to invest in home hardening resources ahead of summer.
Read more of the state's 2025 Wildfire Preparedness Plan .
