{"id":799003,"date":"2019-08-29T17:33:02","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T23:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=370725"},"modified":"2019-08-29T17:33:02","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T23:33:02","slug":"fire-districts-urge-compliance-with-fire-restrictions-ahead-of-holiday-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/fire-districts-urge-compliance-with-fire-restrictions-ahead-of-holiday-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire districts urge compliance with fire restrictions ahead of holiday weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A sign on North Main Street in Breckenridge states the fire danger level as “very high” on Wednesday, Aug.28. The Summit County Fire Department has issued fire restrictions due to dry conditions.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 The second wildfire season has arrived in Summit County, and with an influx of visitors expected over the holiday weekend, officials with the county\u2019s fire districts are urging residents and visitors to use caution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very reasons that people want to come up to Summit County \u2014 our beautiful mountains, our wonderful woods, our wildlife and all the experiences we have \u2014 we want to preserve and protect those,\u201d Summit Fire and EMS spokesman Steve Lipsher said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to jeopardize those because of carelessness or lack of awareness of what the actual wildfire danger is and how devastating a fire could be to a community like ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite a healthy amount of snow and rainfall throughout the spring and summer, conditions have worsened considerably in recent weeks. While the fire danger was considered low earlier this month, officials ratcheted the danger level up to very high this week citing high winds and a rapid decrease of moisture in the area\u2019s timber and grass fuel groups.<\/p>\n

Officials also noted that heavy spring precipitation serves as kind of a doubled-edged sword in the area, helping to keep the potential for wildfires at bay during summer but creating substantial fuel sources as grasses and foliage, which saw significant growth throughout summer, begin to dry out in the fall.<\/p>\n

This time of year, the combination of wind and frost can lead to a dangerous amount of fuel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody who was here noticed how strong the winds were in the area on Saturday, and even more so on Sunday where the temperatures were quite a bit warmer and that contributed to the dying of the grasses,\u201d Red, White and Blue Fire Protection District Chief Jim Keating said. \u201cAnd the frost is basically killing the top of the grasses. It\u2019s only going to take a few days for things to dry out and become brittle. It\u2019s the same with the underbrush and debris in the timber. It\u2019s all very dry at this time, and it doesn\u2019t take a whole lot other than a single spark to start a situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

To help combat the problem, the Summit Board of County Commissioners and the Dillon Ranger District of the White River National Forest enacted Stage 1 fire restrictions last week. The restrictions broadly cover a number of topics, including a ban on fireworks and guidelines for smokers. The restrictions also cover the use of campfires.<\/p>\n

In short, fires are allowed on private property as long as they are contained within a commercially manufactured outdoor fireplace and equipped with a protective screen, and campfires are allowed within designated permanent metal fire rings on U.S. Forest Service land. But backcountry campfires are not allowed, and officials are asking guests to respect the restrictions after responding to a number of illegal fires over the past week.<\/p>\n

In addition to increasing the potential for a human caused fire, officials also said reports of backcountry smoke sightings from illegal campfires create a strain on the fire districts that often have to resort to using ATVs or hiking into heavily wooded areas to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had a few calls where people are not in designated camping areas but are just going up into the mountains to spend a few days and light a campfire,\u201d Keating said. \u201cEven if you\u2019re up here and doing it like you\u2019re supposed to, a spark overnight could start a really bad situation. We know people want to go to an isolated area and get away from everyone else when they camp, but to protect our forest, they\u2019re going to have to respect the restrictions and stay in a designated area for their safety and the safety of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from a few illegal fires, typically from visitors uninformed about the prohibition, the fire districts largely lauded community members for adhering to the fire restrictions. But with fire departments on high alert, it\u2019s important to stay vigilant and smart.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are pretty understanding that we don\u2019t support fire restrictions just because we\u2019re being authoritarian,\u201d Lipsher said. \u201cBut we recognize that even a constantly monitored campfire under these conditions could spew out sparks that could start a wildfire. As a result, when we support the county commissioners in imposing fire restrictions, it\u2019s based on what we know is the best way to prevent a catastrophe from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summit County Stage 1 Fire Restrictions<\/strong><\/p>\n

U.S. Forest Service Stage 1 Fire Restrictions<\/strong><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sign on North Main Street in Breckenridge states the fire danger level as “very high” on Wednesday, Aug.28. The Summit County Fire Department has issued fire restrictions due to dry conditions.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 The second wildfire season has arrived in Summit County, and with an influx of visitors expected over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-799003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 19:14:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}