6 westword.com WESTWORD JULY 30-AUGUST 5, 2026 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | a recent study by the Colorado School of Mines. If things continue as they are, by 2060, Colorado will be up to fi ve times more likely to lose homes in wildfi res than it is today, says Earth Lab Director Virginia Iglesias, citing a new unreleased study from the lab. However, that future is not set in stone. “Fire is a little different than other haz- ards because we are part of fi re,” Iglesias explains. “Should we expect fi res to keep happening in similar size, speed and fre- quency as they’re happening today? Yes, that’s very likely. But is destruction going to [continue to] be very high? It depends.” Colorado will celebrate its 150th birthday amid smoke and fl ames on Aug. 1. Wildfi re decisions made today will help shape what the state’s 200th anniversary looks like. “If we act, we can change fi re itself,” Iglesias says. A Growing Threat In a single day, two airplanes found 33 wild- fi res burning throughout Colorado on July 20. The state-owned aircraft use infrared and color sensors to detect fi res, with the ability to identify tiny embers from 22,000 feet above the ground, according to the Colorado Divi- sion of Fire Prevention & Control. Once found, they dispatch local authorities to extinguish the fl ames before they spread. Their record is locating 37 fi res in one day back in 2023. The aircraft program is one of the di- vision’s many strategies added in recent years to combat the growing threat of wild- fi res. In the last decade, Morgan says the division has tripled its staff, purchased two Firehawk helicopters, expanded dispatch centers to operate 365 days a year, started using military-operated satellites to spot fi res in remote areas, and entered into a federal agreement allowing it to provide air support free of charge to fi ght fi res that are still under local jurisdiction. “We are better prepared than we’ve ever been,” Morgan says. “Our program works; it’s effective, it’s effi cient. But we can’t catch them all. ... The threat and the challenge is getting bigger.” The reason fi res are getting bigger is largely twofold, explains Stevens-Rumann of the Forest Restoration Institute. One, climate change is causing hotter and drier conditions for longer stretches of the year, and two, historic fi re suppression has resulted in an accumulation of fuel in forests. Fires are a natural part of a forest life cycle. Indigenous people in Colorado used controlled low-intensity fi res to promote forest health and ecology. But when those groups were displaced in the mid-to-late 1800s, the emphasis shifted to snuffi ng out all fi res as soon as possible. Full fi re sup- pression remained the na- tional standard for forest management until around the 1970s, when federal policy began to gradu- ally shift away from the practice. However, this year, the Trump admin- istration revived the full suppression policy. Over a century of extin- guishing all blazes resulted in the buildup of flam- mable trees, grasses and brush, which can cause wildfi res to spread rapidly when they do spark. “Large amounts of our forests in Colorado would have historically burned every fi ve to 20 years, but haven’t seen fi res in 120 to 140 years,” Stevens-Ru- mann says. “Historically, we would’ve had lots of places where fi res could stop. Now, we’re dealing with continuous fuels, wall-to-wall forests.” In addition, nearly 85% of wildfi res in the U.S. are caused by humans via campfi res, cigarettes, downed powerlines and other means, according to the National Park Service. Prior to indus- trial society, fi res were mostly sparked by lightning, meaning they’d largely only burn during convective storm seasons. “With that, what we have done is extend the fi re season,” Iglesias explains. “Humans can provide ignitions at any time of the year.” As wildfires grow larger and more frequent, Coloradans are also expanding further into the wildlands where the fi res burn. Just under half of Colorado’s popula- tion, about 2.5 million people, lives in the wildland-urban interface, according to a 2023 analysis from the Colorado State For- est Service. “So when you have a fire like Aspen Acres, there are a lot of people living in that landscape who are really, really impacted,” Stevens-Rumann says. “Even 20 years ago, you might not have seen that level of human impact for a fi re that size in that area.” All of these factors come together to cre- ate ideal conditions for devastating infernos. But that doesn’t mean the damage can’t be prevented. Fighting Fire With Fire “The best way for us to fi ght these catastrophic fi res is with fi re,” Stevens-Rumann argues. “All climate projections show that more fi re is likely on our landscapes,” she contin- ues, “but we are at the precipice of making a decision: whether we are controlled by those fi res — meaning we have these big catastrophic, really bad fi res that we can’t suppress right away — or whether we use fi re more effectively.” A hotshot crew member working near the edge of the Aspen Acres fi re on July 18. Crews reached 97% containment on the Ferris fi re as of July 27. JACOB TEPSA/ASPEN ACRES INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM FERRIS FIRE OFFICIALS/INCIWEB News continued from page 4
