Gunnison District

Fire Management

Wildfire Protection and Management

Colorado law identifies the sheriff as the fire warden for the county and the individual ultimately responsible for controlling and extinguishing prairie and forest fires on private & state lands within that county (CRS 30-10-513 (14 KB PDF)). The role of the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) is to assist the sheriff and county fire departments with this responsibility. CSFS fulfills this role by providing training, equipment, technical assistance and funding and by facilitating interagency mutual aid agreements and annual operating plans.

Wildfire Hazard Evaluation and Mitigation

Many rural Colorado homeowners seek secluded, sheltered homesites. Many do not realize services such as fire protection, often taken for granted in the city, are not readily available at their mountain retreat. The photo above right, shows a typical "secluded" mountain hideaway. The photo on the left illustrates a "defensible space" created by the homeowner. Creating a defensible space around your home involves thinning vegetation adjacent to the structure. This allows firefighters a safer opportunity to protect your home.

Wildfire Hazard Area Mapping

The Gunnison District can identify and map wildfire hazard areas for county planning departments. ARC/INFO software is used in preparing Geographic Information System (GIS) data. We assist a county at the desired level whether that is the complete process of photo-typing, ground-truthing, and digitizing the data into the GIS, or just interpreting aerial photography and identifying of wildfire hazard areas.

House Bill 1041

Wildfire Hazard Review — CSFS is the designated state agency by H.B. 1041, to review (upon county request) the Wildfire Hazard "state area of concern." (CRS 24-65.1-202 (20 KB PDF)). We use state and national (NFPA 299) standards for these evaluations.

Prescribed Fire

Fire can be an efficient tool to accomplish many landowner objectives, including wildlife habitat, range improvement, forest management or wildfire hazard reduction. Landowners often request CSFS to assist in the implementation of an applied prescribed burn that fulfills these land use objectives.

Mitigation

Active wildfire hazard mitigation (5.12 MB PDF) by CSFS includes identifying needed mitigation on-the-ground, funding mitigation programs through cost-share grants and disseminating information through educational materials. Mountain home fire safety information sheets are also available for review.

You may also want to view our Defensible Space page.

Post-fire Rehabilitation

CSFS assists affected landowners with wildfire rehabilitation plans following wildfire events. These plans outline structural erosion control measures and suggest needed re-vegetation to assist the land healing process. Many rehabilitation plans are implemented with cost-share assistance. For more information, please visit our Post-fire Rehabilitation page.

Wildfire Training

The Colorado Wildland Fire & Incident Management Academy, partially sponsored by CSFS, has become the place for Colorado, national and international wildfire agencies to receive nationally- qualifying (NWCG) wildfire training. For more information, please visit the "Becoming a Wildland Firefighter" section of our site.

National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) wildfire courses:

  • National
  • Rocky Mountain Area
  • CSFS Gunnison District wildfire training

    Contact us; perhaps we can customize wildfire training for county wildfire response personnel to meet your needs. Task books list on-the-job training requirements for specific wildland firefighting positions. Those requiring a task book, can download by clicking here.

Agreements and Major Wildfire Assistance through the CSFS

Mutual Aid Agreements and Annual Operating Plans

Every year, CSFS, federal land fire agencies and counties meet to reach agreement on the sharing of firefighters and equipment if wildfires exceed a particular jurisdiction's capabilities. The intent of mutual aid is for all fire suppression agencies to work as a team, avoid duplication and efficiently suppress wildfires. The Annual Operating Plan defines the limits of interagency cooperation and contains a mobilization plan that identifies the location and availability of firefighters and equipment.

Smokeyunderstory RedDirt Fire

Emergency Fire Fund

The Emergency Fire Fund (EFF) was established in 1967 by a few counties that recognized that some wildfires may exceed the counties resources and their abilities to manage the fires. Participation in the EFF is voluntary. A 10-person committee, comprised of county commissioners, sheriffs, fire chiefs and the state forester, oversees the administration of the fund. Currently, 43 Colorado counties (including Larimer) and the Denver Water Board contribute to EFF. A county's annual assessment for EFF is calculated using a formula based on the acreage of private watershed and the annual property tax valuation. Counties with large amounts of private watershed land and a high assessed valuation pay more into the fund than rural counties with large acreage of federal lands and low assessed valuation. Emergency funding requests must originate from the county sheriff and state forester approval is required. Once accepted, an EFF fire is managed under the direction of CSFS.

Federal Funding Assistance

The CSFS is authorized by the governor as the primary point of contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) when wildfires pose an imminent threat to life and property. CSFS requests, and if awarded, administers FEMA Fire Management Assistance Grants (FMAG). FMAGs provide for up to 75 percent of eligible costs in the suppression of catastrophic wildfires.

Wildfire Emergency Response Fund

This State of Colorado fund was first designated and funded by the state legislature in 2002 (CRS 23-30-310). The Wildfire Emergency Response Fund (WERF) reimburses a fire department or county for the first retardant load on state and private land initial attack fires at the request of the county sheriff, municipal fire chief or fire protection district. In 2006, the legislature expanded authorities in the WERF to include reimbursement for two days of hand crew use with preference to state inmate crews. The goal is to reduce suppression costs by attacking fires quickly to keep them small.

Wildfire Suppression Equipment

Engines

CSFS has 140 federal excess property vehicles located throughout the state; three of these are assigned to volunteer fire departments on the Gunnison District. Our fire equipment shop in Fort Collins converts these vehicles to wildland fire engines and provides all major maintenance. The all-wheel drive (4x4 and 6x6) engines are equipped with pumps, 200- or 1,000-gallon tanks, hose reels, equipment boxes and are loaned out to fire departments and counties ready to fight wildfires. The cooperator is responsible for minor maintenance and provides small equipment such as hose, nozzles and hand tools.

These engines are inspected annually and updated as technology advances and budgets allow. Improvements such as low profile tanks, foam injection systems, compressed air foam systems and multi-fuel engines have made the fleet safer and more effective. State engines, with their fire department crew, are often components of the CSFS-sponsored engine teams used to combat large federal fires throughout the West.

CSFS has also added state-owned commercial chassis wildland engines to the resource pool that protects life and property in Colorado. Currently, 17 engines are located at CSFS district offices or with cooperators. They serve to bolster local resources and are available to respond to wildfires anywhere in the state.

All CSFS wildland engines, both federal excess property and state-owned, meet or exceed National Wildland Coordinating Group (NWCG) standards for wildland engine types.

Our fire equipment shop fabricates a limited number of custom wildfire engines for those departments unable to obtain this service elsewhere.

Single Engine Air Tanker

CSFS contracts and manages Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATs) during most of the summer fire season. The number and location of SEATs varies throughout the year as fire activity changes. The aircraft are pre-positioned around the state in response to high fire danger in coordination with federal and county jurisdictions. Colorado has found that SEAT aircraft complement helicopters and large air tankers in wildfire suppression. They are well suited to Colorado’s high elevations, rugged terrain and expanding wildland urban interface.

Retardant bomber making a drop
Courtesy of Oregon Department of Forestry; photo by Dan Thorpe

Fire Equipment

CSFS is the connection for local and county fire agencies to purchase wildfire equipment through General Services Administration (GSA) contracts. Federal agencies contract with suppliers for fire equipment and the resulting volume provides a savings. CSFS provides this service for our local fire agencies by using an electronic mail order system. Fire departments also save on Class A foam which is bulk ordered by CSFS. Local fire agencies may contact the Fort Collins District office to place a GSA order.

Wildfire Management Links