DENVER — The 2025 wildfire outlook in Colorado may look average as of now, but experts warned on Thursday that they are still expecting big fires this year and communities should take the steps to keep themselves safe
“The fire risk for this summer across much of our state is average," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said at the beginning of a press conference on Thursday morning. "There is a heightened risk in the short-term in April and May in southeast Colorado. Last in the summer, that shifts to an elevated risk in southwest Colorado for the summer. But much of Colorado will have an average fire season, which of course means that there can be, likely will be, incidents that we will be ready to respond to."
The outlook assessment is completed each spring ahead of the typical fire season, though all of the speakers on Thursday were quick to acknowledge that Colorado has experienced destructive wildfires every month of the year.
Watch the full press conference in the video below.
Colorado Department of Public Safety Executive Director Stan Hilkey said he wants to be cautious when using the word "normal" when discussing the wildfire outlook.
"That means that we’ve had fires and we’re going to continue to have fires. We expect to have fires this year," he said. "Some will get big. And we’re going to be busy. That’s what 'normal' looks like for Colorado."
In a normal fire season, Colorado sees about 6,000 wildfires that burn between 150,000 and 160,000 acres, Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control Director Mike Morgan said. While most of those are quickly extinguished and the public may never know about them, big fires can and likely will happen in 2025. About 90% of all wildfires across the country are caused by people, he added, and therefore, most can be prevented.
“So, when we say, ‘normal,’ please don’t let your guard down. We will have fires. We will have big fires," he said. “... We can’t afford to let our guard down.”
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While the state can prepare as much as possible for those fires, factors like weather, snowpack and field conditions are out of their control. "Wind-driven events," like the Marshall Fire in December 2021, are expected to drive much of the fire activity this year, Hilkey said.
The speakers on Thursday focused on defensible space around homes and communities, and the tools and resources in place to learn how and why this can help in an emergency. This community-level mitigation is one of the earliest defenses against a fire — as well as proactive prescribed burns and forest management — especially as more people move into the wildland-urban interface. This sort of work can also lend itself to direct savings in homeowners insurance, Polis said, which some people have struggled to obtain based on where they live.
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“The good news is we know mitigation works," explained Colorado State Forest Service Director Matt McCombs. "So, where we put these treatments in place, where we change and augment the nature of the forest in ways that allow it to receive fire and resist fire — gives our firefighters a fighting chance to do safely the suppression activities that protect homes and the values that we all cherish so much.”
As an example, he recalled a wildfire sparked by an abandoned campfire near Breckenridge in July 2024 that firefighters were able to keep under one acre in size because of prior mitigation work.
When the winds are not at a dangerous level, Colorado can get its aircraft fleet above the flames to attack from above.
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Colorado has two Type 2 helicopters, one Fire Hawk helicopter with a second scheduled for delivery on Aug. 12, two Pilatus PC-12 multi-mission aircraft and an exclusive use contract for a large airtanker, Morgan said. A statewide dispatch system can help first responders order these resources quickly and with shorter response times, Polis added.
“Our system is built to protect the state of Colorado first and foremost," Morgan said.
However, he said it's important to be a good neighbor and when conditions allow, Colorado can send its resources to help outside of the state. This may be particularly true for New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, where fire risk is more elevated than in Colorado this year.
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No single agency has the capacity to effectively do all the work on their own, Morgan said. He listed off the importance of local fire departments, sheriff's offices and other groups across the state. All have different strengths they bring to the table, he said, and the true "boots-on-the-ground assets" are the local governments.
Troy Heithecker, regional forester for the Rocky Mountain Region for U.S. Forest Service, explained that they currently have 560 firefighters now for the region, with a hiring event underway to hopefully reach a total of 761. He said he expects to obtain this number, adding that firefighting and law enforcement positions have been exempt from federal cuts.
Those positions would cover five states, but Heithecker said the primary ones are Colorado and Wyoming.
He added that some probationary employees were impacted by USFS cuts earlier this year, but all of those individuals are back to work. However, they are still seeing staffing shortages due to retirement, he said.
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All 20 of the 20 largest fires in Colorado's history have happened in the last two decades, Morgan said. And of the five largest wildfires, four have burned since 2018:
- Cameron Peak Fire (2020) - 208,913 acres
- East Troublesome Fire (2020) - 193,812 acres
- Pine Gulch Fire (2020) - 139,007 acres
- Hayman Fire (2002) - 137,760 acres
- Spring Creek Fire (2018) - 108,045 acres
Now is the time to take the steps to ensure readiness for a wildfire, Hilkey said. Check with your county to see what sort of emergency alerts you can subscribe to so you know about a safety issue as soon as possible, he said.
Denver7 took a look at the reality of year-round wildfires in our special "Burned Out" in November. Watch it below and read our in-depth story here.