A wake-up call
Devastation of L.A. fires could happen anywhere – even Durango

After fierce winds whipped fire out of brush-covered hills Jan. 7, entire Los Angeles neighborhoods burned down. Within a few days, more than 12,000 homes and businesses had been destroyed as flames ringed the city. And it’s not over yet.

The photos of smoldering neighborhoods and distraught residents are horrific and shocking. Could they also presage the kind of wildfire that might overtake Durango, a town of about 20,000 in southwestern Colorado?

It’s a question worth asking. Local fire experts say Los Angeles and Durango are similar in topography. Durango doesn’t experience the hurricane-force Santa Ana winds that pushed the L.A. fires, but it does often have sustained winds of 30 mph and gusts over 40 mph, which can vault burning embers great distances. 

Perhaps more importantly, the big city and the town share the same pattern of development.

Angelenos have long coveted proximity to wooded canyons for their homes. Durango residents crave the same access to nature, pushing housing into the nearby hills. In both places, million-dollar homes have been built among flammable trees.

Other similarities include lax regulations that fail to dissuade wildland builders. Then there’s the question of storing enough water and having sufficient water pressure to fight blazes. Los Angeles ran out of water fast, because attacks on simultaneous fires quickly drew down supplies. 

Durango uses around 4 million gallons daily and has two weeks of storage in its Terminal Reservoir. But if the city ran a dozen or more high-flow hydrants, water pressure would plummet in days. Here’s a suggestion: Prioritize building the $11-million-dollar, 36-inch proposed water line from Lake Nighthorse, a nearby reservoir, to the city system, boosting raw water storage to four months. 

Durango has a history of large wildfires. In 2002, the 73,000-acre Missionary Ridge Fire torched 46 structures. The town suffered another blow in 2018 when the 416 Fire burned 54,130 acres. 

Randy Black, Durango Fire Protection District Chief, is quick to point out that not one structure was lost in 2018, thanks to a coordinated effort by local and state crews. “We got lucky,” he said. “If the June 2018 fire happened later in the season, resources wouldn’t have been available.” Also key were carefully forged relationships among regional firefighting resources, Black said, along with extensive planning.

One hundred eighty employees and volunteers staff the Durango Fire District, which covers both the city and a 325-square-mile swath of the county. Black said they focus on what he calls the most important aspect of firefighting – mitigation meant to keep wildland fires from starting in the first place.

That means working to create fire breaks between wildlands and urban areas and removing fuels within the urban core. The town participates by thinning wooded areas on its perimeter, and federal agencies manage both thinning and controlled burns.

 “If you don’t do the fire mitigation, you run the risk of whole neighborhoods catching on fire,” Black said.

Another similarity between Los Angeles and Durango is that both share difficulty in getting fire insurance. Some insurers have pulled out of California entirely, and when the Durango Fire District built its new in-town firehouse last year, Black said, no one would insure the structure at first. Colorado insurance companies had just weathered 10 years of property losses to wildland fire, and they were loath to take chances.  

Colorado’s new, state-backed Fair Plan offers a last resort for home insurance, but it’s bare-bones coverage of homes worth up to $750,000. With building costs in Durango now estimated to be $500 to $700 per square foot, losing a 2,000-square-foot home to wildfire means rebuilding a much smaller house.

I’ve talked to many wildland fire experts about how towns can fight these multiple, destructive blazes. Their suggestions boil down to three basics: 

• First, make building requirements stringent for any home proposed in wildlands.

• Second, get residents involved. The Durango Fire District offers homeowners free assessments of fire risk, and it also advises the creation of three zones around a house: Remove anything flammable within 5 feet, include a turnaround big enough for fire vehicles, and allow only widely spaced trees and mown grass out to 100 feet.

• A third step is “hardening” existing structures with fireproof building materials. Black, who built his own house, said he chose cement siding and a metal roof. 

If homeowners take these steps, say insurers, they stand a better chance of keeping their insurance policies. Twenty-four people have lost their lives in the Los Angeles fires as of Jan. 12. Their deaths are a wakeup call to everyone living in the West – especially Durango.

Dave Marston is the publisher of Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to lively discussion about the West. He lives in Durango.