Editors: Some of the experts cited below participated in a discussion of wildfire last year sponsored by ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥'s Center of the American West. The report, "Facing Fire: Lessons From the Ashes" is available by calling the center at (303) 492-4879.
A trapped herd of buffalo charging right through a wildfire suggested a stark analogy to a biologist at the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder.
"You can't run away from fire," Professor Carl Bock said. "You have to turn and face it, and you have to be prepared."
This advice might be especially timely, as residents and emergency officials begin dealing with what could be the worst fire season in a century. According to published reports, 283 wildfires have sparked in ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ through mid-April compared to only 54 by this time last year.
A number of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder scholars are actively researching the mechanics, history and effect of wildfires in efforts to help people be as prepared as the bison that Bock observed.
The herd, Bock said, didn't seem disturbed by the fire and charged right through it. Once they were behind the advancing flames, the animals began licking the burnt ground, he said.ÌýÌý
Bock theorized that buffalo don't shed their fuzzy head fur, or the heavy fur on their front quarters, because it protects them from being burned by summer grassland fires. He said their behavior also underscored another important idea - the safest place to be is behind a wildfire. Aggressive fire fighting tactics in recent seasons may mean that there are few safe areas along the Front Range.
"The consequences of historic fire suppression really become apparent in a drought year, when the fire risk goes up," Bock said. "We've allowed fuels to build up in the system. When a drought year comes along, the bomb can really go off."
The devastating 1998 wildfires in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park came during a dry, windy summer. Bock, who has studied how wildfires affect grasslands, believes ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ may face a similar situation this year.
As the number of fires increase, so does the danger to firefighters.Ìý John Daily, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Joint Center for Combustion and Environmental Research at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder, is compiling knowledge about the mechanics of wildfires, including devastating "blowups." During a blowup, a fire can suddenly spread at speeds faster than the average person can run, Daily said.ÌýÌý
"A blowup is usually caused by a combination of high winds and very dry fuels. Since fire also tends to spread more rapidly when climbing a slope, blowups in our region occur more frequently in steep gullies and canyons," Daily said.
Blowups pose an extreme danger to firefighters and structures near wildfires. In 1994, a blowup ran up a steep section of South Canyon near Glenwood Springs, Colo., killing several firefighters. In all, 14 people lost their lives battling that blaze.
"I believe 2002 is shaping up to be a dry year, so if that turns out to be the case, we would expect more blowup events," Daily said.
Geography Professor Thomas Veblen is actively extending wildfire records back through history to try to correlate atmospheric and climate factors with wildfire patterns in different parts of the world. The work involves finding evidence of prehistoric blazes, often revealed by fire-scarred trees and charcoal layers in lake sediments.Ìý
Since the 1980s, Veblen has trained graduate students from the United States and several South American countries to track wildfire by interpreting tree rings.
"The use of tree rings to reconstruct past droughts and to date past fires from fire-scarred trees puts into perspective the current fire hazard in the ponderosa pine and Douglas fir forests of the Front Range," Veblen said.
Evidence shows that during drought periods in Boulder County as long ago as 1653, as much as a third or more of the area's mountainous terrain was probably affected by fire, Veblen said. These past fires included high-intensity fires similar to those occurring this year and in 2000, he said.Ìý
"This historical evidence indicates that these forest ecosystems are naturally characterized by years of severe and widespread fires, so they are inherently hazardous places for human habitation," he said.Ìý
Mary Fran Myers, co-director of the Natural Hazards Center at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder, said that the threat of fire and the damage it causes in ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ has increased because more people are moving into wild land areas.
"The fires really pose a threat only when they're encroaching on the built-up environment. That increases the potential for losses as well as the need for emergency response, which, of course, affects all taxpayers," she said.
Myers thinks that it would be useful for officials and residents to have data analyzing the financial and environmental cost of aggressive fire fighting efforts. "With more information, we may realize that it isn't worth it to aggressively fight a particular fire that threatens one or two homes - instead we might use financial resources to compensate a homeowner for their loss," she said.
The best use of funds, Myers said, is in the form of incentives to promote good mitigation efforts. "It's the same thing as living in coastal hurricane-prone areas, or floodplains. We know that fire is going to happen in forested areas, regardless of the fire's cause. So people should be prepared for that, and there are things that residents can do - like creating defensible space and using fire-resistant building materials - to reduce the risk to their property," she said.