CENTENNIAL, Colo. — In dense mountain forests, wildfire risk is easy to imagine. In busy downtown Denver, the risk is extremely low. The Colorado Department of Fire Prevention and Control wanted to make that clear across the state with its new wildfire code.
Last summer, CDFPC rolled out its new wildfire resiliency map and code, including new rules for properties highlighted on the map that are designated as wildfire risk.
Solid red, orange, and yellow designate areas of high, moderate, and low intensity non-federal land, respectively.
Depending on the designation level, different wildfire-resiliency rules would apply to any new builds or major projects on those properties.
▶ WATCH: Denver7's Danielle Kruetter explores varying responses to the new rules across the south metro area
"There are a number of components that are specific to a lot of them, to the exterior structure of the home. So things like making sure that five feet around your home, there aren't combustible materials," said Kelly Campbell, a member of the Wildfire Resiliency Code Board.
She also explained that the code covers other changes, such as removing combustible fences or installing screens over vents to prevent embers from entering a home in the event of a nearby wildfire.
The complete Colorado wildfire resiliency code can be found here.
South Metro communities are in a unique position: the majority are in a dense metropolitan area, but pockets of homes are marked on the state's new map as at-risk.
"We had to look at the fuels, and where did the fuels exist? We do have these amazing open spaces in Colorado, throughout the Denver metro area, but within those open spaces, they may create a lot of fuels that can create wildfire risk in areas that we wouldn't traditionally think of as wildfire areas," said Campbell.
Littleton approved the new code within a month of the state presenting the maps. The changes would affect about 3% of the entire city. Staff said it was important to do what they could to protect their community from wildfire risk.
"As we've unfortunately seen in some recent wildfires, namely the Marshall Fire up north, and some of the recent fires in Southern California that destroyed Altadena and Pacific Palisades, it is a real risk," said Steven Salg, supervisor with Littleton's Building Division.
Similarly, Centennial also had pockets of at-risk areas on the new map. City council there approved the adoption of the new code, with local amendments.
In contrast, Greenwood Village took a different stance.
"[Greenwood Village] supports the delay in the bill, which would delay the imposition of this ridiculous bill onto communities," said Greenwood Village Mayor Pro-Tem Libby Barnacle at a recent council meeting in regards to the wildfire resiliency code.
Greenwood Village said it believes the 41 homes identified by the state as at risk were incorrectly identified.
After their own analysis of the geographic information system data, or ground-truth, the city's community development director, Derek Holcomb, determined that, "Adoption under these circumstances would create confusion, mischaracterize wildfire risk to residents, and provide no measurable public safety benefit. For those reasons, the City decided not to adopt the CWRC at this time."
Greenwood Village said it will be working with the South Metro Fire Department on solutions tailored for its community.
In a statement to Denver7, the agency said it respects Greenwood Village’s decision not to adopt the wildfire code:
"South Metro Fire Rescue remains committed to being a strong and trusted partner to the City of Greenwood Village. We understand and respect the City’s decision not to adopt a Wildfire Resiliency Code at this time, and we express no opinion on the merits of that decision. Our partnership with Greenwood Village continues beyond code adoption. We value our ongoing collaboration with the City Manager and municipal leadership as we work together on wildfire preparedness, emergency response, and mitigation strategies," the agency said.
Amid these differing responses, Denver7 asked the CWRC board about the Greenwood Village decision.
"Once they do that ground truthing, [they need] to submit that map, and we can review that map. I don't believe that whole process has been complete yet, but that's absolutely part of the contemplated process," said Campbell.
Campbell added that the main goal of the code is to help communities learn best practices for creating wildfire-resilient properties.
"We really do intend this code to be educational, so folks can better understand their risk, and they can then have clear guidance on the kinds of things that they can do to reduce their risk," said Campbell.
Communities across the state must comply with the wildfire code in some way by the end of July. By September, the board will report which communities are not in compliance; it's not clear what happens then.
"As a board, we do not have enforcement authority over a jurisdiction," said Campbell, "When we release that report on September 30, as a board, we don't really have control over that. It's really intended just to be for information and to make that information available."
