BOULDER, Colo. — Hikers at the base of Chautauqua in Boulder will notice a big red "Fire Ban" sign on their way up Flag Staff. It's one of dozens that were placed around the county Monday morning to spread the word about the new fire restrictions.
The restrictions are in place for much of the foothills and mountains in Boulder County:
- West of CO Highway 93 (CO-93), from its intersection with the southern boundary of Boulder County until, and including, its intersection with CO Highway 119 (CO-119)
- West of Broadway Avenue in the City of Boulder, from its intersection with CO-119 until, and including, its intersection with US Highway 36 (US-36)
- West of US-36, from its intersection with Broadway Avenue until its intersection with the northern boundary of Boulder County
- West of the western boundary of the Rabbit Mountain Open Space until, and including, US-36
- All of the Rabbit Mountain Open Space property
Under the Stage 1 restrictions the following are not allowed:
- Open fires, campfires, stove fires, charcoal barbecues and grills on public lands.
- Fireworks sales, use and possession
- Shooting firearms on public lands except for with a valid hunting license
- Smoking outside near any combustible material
- Using any internal or external combustion engine without a spark-arresting device
- Parking a motorized vehicle in a vegetated area
"We use basically what we call a matrix of how dry the fuels are, what we call 1,000-hour fuels, which are going to be your thicker trees and downed slash kind of things. So if that's under 12% which means it's pretty dry, and right now we're at 7% on those," said Kyle Holsinger, the fire operations specialist for Boulder County Sheriff's Office Fire Management. "None of these rain systems have really brought us enough moisture into the soil and to bring those, those fuel moistures back up."
People inside the Stage 1 restriction area are still allowed to have outdoor fires that are in a constructed, permanent fire pit or fire grates like the type you'd see at developed camp sites. Portable stoves and lanterns that use gas or liquid fuel are also allowed.
Depending on the weather it's possible the fire ban could be removed, but if conditions remain hot and dry, more restrictions could be put in place.
"I think in the seven or eight years I've been here, we've been [Stage 2] once, and this doesn't include the temporary fire restrictions such as red flag days, high wind warnings and high wind Watches, as well. We will enact those as we see we need to," said Holsinger.
Boulder now joins a few other counties that have put fire restrictions into place.
