Residents in fire-prone areas must take swift action as wildfires become more severe

Transcript:

Last July, when a wildfire was reported near Lyons, Colorado, fire chief Rob Stumpf and his crew rushed to the scene.

They could see the fire was growing fast and heading toward town.

Stumpf: “Inside of probably 90 seconds of having been on scene, we issued orders for evacuation.”

Those orders helped protect people from what became known as the Stone Canyon Fire.

Stumpf says it’s increasingly important for response teams and residents to move quickly when a wildfire starts because fires are getting more extreme and spreading faster.

Stumpf: “We’re seeing preliminary notifications followed by secondary, tertiary, and then final mandatory evacuations happen in the span of minutes.”

And as development expands toward fire-prone forests, more homes are at risk.

Stumpf says when he started fighting fires in Colorado about 14 years ago, evacuations were usually limited to a small number of people in remote areas.

Stumpf: “Now it’s pretty common to evacuate entire subdivisions and entire towns for wildfire because of the rate of spread and the density of development.”

So it’s critical that people understand the seriousness of the threat – and be prepared.

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media