'We have to pay attention': Fire departments across the Front Range remain on high alert ahead of hot week

DENVER — Extreme heat on the Front Range and little expected rain are causing concern for potential wildfires and putting fire departments across the metro on high alert.

As of Monday, there were no fire restrictions or red flag warnings in place for the Front Range, but forecasters with the National Weather Service said drought conditions are going to get worse, before they get better.

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"Sometimes we have a pretty good idea a couple days out what might happen, but other times, the red flag warning could be issued just in a matter of hours from the time that the conditions are going to happen," said Eric Hurst with Aurora Fire Rescue. "We have to pay attention."

Already, it's been a busy couple of days for fire departments across the metro. On Sunday, Aurora Fire responded to at least two vegetation fires.

"Near Evans and Buckley, and this is right behind a condo complex, so very close to structures. Lots of people concerned called 911, about this one, and there was certainly the chance that this could spread into the neighborhood here," Hurst added. "The second fire we had was near Colfax and Jasper. That was more open space, and that one burned about an acre. So we're already starting to see an uptick in vegetation fires."

On Monday, South Metro Fire Rescue helped put out two vegetation fires before noon.

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"We've had a couple that we responded to. We had one yesterday in Centennial," said Brian Willie with South Metro. "We had one this morning that we responded to with Denver Fire in Littleton."

"It's all these little, small brush fires, but the problem is, everything is just so dry, and we've had such good weather prior that all this vegetation has grown, and now it's dried out, and it's really, really tall and long, and so it's very combustible, so any small spark can really get something going," Willie added.

While no red flag warning was in place as of Monday morning, both departments said if that were to be issued, they'd boost staff able to respond to every single fire callout.

"If it gets red flag conditions, then we would up staff to where we would have a brush truck follow on any call," Willie said. "We would split our crews up, and so we would have two in the engine and two in a brush truck, and they would follow to all calls. That way, our brush trucks can get on scene that much quicker."

Over at the Aurora Fire Rescue, Hurst told Denver7 an emphasis would also be put on staff if a red flag warning were to be issued.

"If we to reach red flag criteria, that's when additional fire engines actually get staffed in the city of Aurora, sometimes as many as five or six. We might even up staff a wildland fire supervisor or two to help cover calls in the city as well," Hurst said.

• Denver7 chief meteorologist Lisa Hidalgo has more on when those hot temperatures will arrive to the Front Range, and what that could mean for wildfire activity in the video below:

Denver7 asked both departments if they'd committed any of their resources to other fires burning in the state or country and how that impacted them.

Hurst told Denver7 weeks ago, Aurora Fire deployed one of its teams to Montana.

"Aurora fire did deploy four firefighters and a fire engine to Montana on what's called a 'severity assignment'," Hurst said. "We list firefighters and a piece of apparatus available to help with wildfire regionally or even nationally, if necessary, and it's determined by the Rocky Mountain area coordination center where the resources are needed most."

Wildfire

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On Monday morning, Willie told Denver7 they got a request for a crew to help battle a fire on Colorado's western slope.

"We're sending a type six engine with three crew members to that," he said.

Weeks ago, Denver7 asked the state's Division of Fire Prevention and Control about its Firehawk. At the time, it had been taken out of service for scheduled maintenance, but a spokesperson told Denver7 Monday it's been back in service for nearly two weeks.

They added the Firehawk has flown fires in both La Plata and Montezuma counties since returning to service.

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