Evergreen area ranked as most at risk for wildfire

"Our forests were designed to have fire naturally move through them. And we took that natural process away from our environment and then we built a whole bunch of houses in it at the end of narrow, windy roads and steep canyons," said Jess Moore, risk reduction coordinator for Evergreen Fire Rescue. 

Moore has been heading up the department's efforts to get people and neighborhoods to sign on to mitigate their property.

"We've created an overgrown forest that now becomes far more susceptible to disease and infestation. That is creating a lot of die-off within our forest stands," Moore explained. With this unhealthy forest and our homes built right into the middle of them, we've created a very scary environment."

Across the state, firefighting experts are looking at the dangers and difficulties in Evergreen and expressing concern. A ranking called the "Fireshed Registry" created by researchers for the U.S. Forest Service to "Identify and map the source of risk and what is at risk across the U.S." identifies the area that includes Evergreen and Morrison as the top fireshed in Rocky Mountain region that includes most of Colorado and parts of four other states. 

Colorado Springs ranks second, Larkspur third and the Boulder area fourth. The communities are at risk for fire spreading rapidly to homes and causing great loss of property.

In Evergreen, there are other issues that complicate the problem. "Everyone knows fire's a terrible threat here," Sherm Dougherty said. Dougherty serves as an ambassador in his Buffalo Park Estates neighborhood deep in Evergreen up narrow, winding Brook Forest Road. He believes most fires will not be catastrophic. 

"The fire that we're most afraid of is not the most likely." That means, even in the forest where his neighborhood lies, losses can be limited. But there are 400 homes in his neighborhood and the adjacent one alone. Many more would use Brook Forest as a primary evacuation route. "I won't lie; it is tough," Dougherty said of the evacuation problem.

Officially, Evergreen has a little over 9,000 residents, but up it's mountain roads live far more, reaching a total of over 25,000. Getting all those people out at one time could be a nightmare. But the community is spread out, and almost certainly, it would not be likely all areas would have to evacuate at once. Moore notes that some people ignored evacuation notices during Evergreen's most recent significant wildfire in 2020. 

"The worst thing that can happen is that you choose not to leave, wait until the last minute, and if things do go sideways, now, you're adding to the chaos and the congestion of the evacuation," Dougherty said. "And that's where the roads are going to become overwhelmed, and the system is going to struggle."

"This evacuation issue is what really keeps me engaged across the board. The area is one of many with potential issues evacuating. This is a one way in, one way out neighborhood," said Moore as she drove up the road into Echo Hills. 

There is only Sinton Road. 

"If they do get trapped in here, that's a horrifying potential," Moore said. "But we really want to make sure that everyone's doing as much as they can." 

Evergreen Fire Rescue has paired up with partners with the local Rotary Club as well as neighborhood leaders like Dougherty. 

"We put our heads down, put our blinders on and get as much work done as we can," Dougherty said. Evergreen Area Ranked As Most At Risk in Wildfire

Mitigation is one aspect. Xcel Energy has also put the area on its list of communities that need wildfire mitigation.

"We've added some upgraded equipment that allows for our system to have more sensitivities to weather," explained Hollie Velasquez, the Xcel regional vice president of state affairs and community relations. "That causes us to de-energize lines faster and also enables our crews to come up and inspect the lines prior to energizing them again." 

Xcel is also replacing aging and dried out power poles and updating equipment with different fuses called ELFs or expulsion limiting fuses. 

"They are fuses that arc much less than traditional fuses," said Diane Watkins, Xcel's director of wildfire mitigation. 

Mitigation work should not be intimidating Moore explained. "The studies and the research has been done that, if you harden your structure, things like double, triple tempered glass windows, cleaning out the gutters and creating that zero to five foot noncombustible zone around your house," Moore said, explaining that makes a big difference. "It's not clearcutting a property. It is not we're not looking to take away the mountain aesthetic or why people have chosen to live here." 

It is partly a sell job to convince people. Dougherty has spent many hours knocking on doors in his neighborhood to begin conversations with people about mitigation. 

"There's no way in the state of Colorado to compel people to do this work," Dougherty said. "So it all has to be gentle persuasion. Scientific information. Proven methods. Showing people what has worked in past fires."