Stage 1 fire restrictions now in place in parts of Boulder County
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:
Under the Stage 1 restrictions the following are not allowed:
"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.