The Roof Is, Indeed, On Fire

JeffCo commissioners make a surprised Picachu face about the fire danger their decisions have exposed people to.

Marshall Fire was an unfortunate affirmation of things to come. While there have already been other fires made worse by haphazard development practices (Mountain Shadows), Marshall Fire took things to the next level. While the source of fire is still been discussed, the severity of the damage was made far worse by the planning antics of the municipalities involved. Yes, the wind that day was severe, but it was also the proximity and placement of structures (among other factors) that made the spread of the fire far, far worse than it had to be. Among many insightful observations and conclusions in the report, there is this:

“If the Marshall fire had started earlier in the day, or the downslope winds had maintained longer through the night, the extent of damage would have certainly been greater, as distances between structures do not appreciably increase to the north and east.“

Did the municipalities learn a lesson? Well, sort of. They turned right around to their largest campaign contributors and said, “What do you think?”

“A last-minute amendment to a fire mitigation bill in May would have created a board to develop statewide building rules, but it was pulled after builders, real estate agents, municipalities and others opposed it.

It wasn’t the first time the state’s powerful building industry asserted its influence over policy. Whenever a wildfire bill comes to the state legislature, well-heeled lobbyists routinely represent the industry, records kept by the Colorado secretary of state show.”

Not to be outdone in poor planning practices, JeffCo planning, along with Lakewood and Morrison, enabled the rezoning of what was once supposed to be a job generation development near the Morrison Road and C-470 (Red Rocks Ranch) in to another profit center for a corporate home builder and a well-heeled developer.

Red Rocks Ranch Development

But JeffCo is way ahead of ya when it comes to fire prevention – they hoisted the responsibility on... drum roll, the homeowners:

“Jefferson County's new wildfire protection plan increases number of neighborhoods considered high-risk.”

Smoke from a fire on 2023-03-31 near Morrison, across the way from the Red Rocks Ranch and Solterra Developments

While they did admit that the fire risk is now even higher for the developments that they had enabled, it is up to those who now live in those developments to mitigate the stupid… err, “job generating” outcomes of JeffCo’s decisions. Ironically, one of the sites cited in JeffCo’s “plan” is the same one that citizens were citing asking NOT to build new homes in the higher fire risk zones. But, as any good real estate agent (or was it one of Lakewood current council members?) will tell you, “You are the idiot if you don’t read the 100-some pages of disclosures.” We are loosely paraphrasing, of course.

While the profits for the developers, just in JeffCo alone, are skyrocketing, people are struggling to pay the “affordable” insurance rates, which have gone up, in part due to the actions of the Colorado politicians.

“The Marshall fire was a horrible, tragic event that served as a wake-up call for the rest of our state,” said state Rep. Lisa Cutter, a Democrat who represents mountain and foothill areas. “I don’t think we realized how much wildfire could impact communities that aren’t deep in the forest — it’s not something any of us are immune to.” An astute politician never lets a good tragedy go to waste.

Lisa Cutter (and a number of the Colorado “progressives”) are rather cozy with the ilk who enabled the said developments to be placed in the areas of high fire danger, but sure do put on a good show about caring and affordability. Some care so much that they took the extra step of showing just how much they care (about the needs of those who donate the most to their political campaigns), just as Brittany Pettersen recently did.

So, enjoy paying the exorbitant insurance rates (if you can even get insurance on your house) and wondering if and when your neighborhood might be in the path of the next fire storm. But hey, at least your “representative” will use all the right words when they placate you about why you can no longer afford to live in Colorado.

2025-02-03 Update: Just a little preview of things to come, written by someone who does words a bit better than this hack - “How huge parts of the US could become uninhabitable within decades — even so-called ‘climate havens’”. The author stopped a tad short of flat out pointing out one group of the culprits - the local and state governments. Climate is always, indeed, changing - we are not here to argue that (besides, Mother Nature could give a shit about your opinion). But the local and state officials should be held liable and accounable for making decisions based on greed and corruption, instead of sound science and critical thinking. And while Colorado governor was ho-humming something or other about people in some parts of Colorado not being able to get home insurance in the very near future, as much as we love to hate the insurance companies, they shall give no shits as they exist for one reason and that reason is to make money - so… Yeah, that might be a problem, too. We did leave a copy of this with the said governor a while back. We are sure that he read it carefully and championed a set of policies… Oh, who are we kidding. Buckle up, it’s gonna get a touch bumpy.