City of Boulder Enacts Emergency Rule in Response to Wildfire Risk

Today, Boulder City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde issued an emergency rule imposing heightened fire regulations within city limits. The rule, which takes effect immediately, parallels the decisive action taken earlier in the day by the Boulder County sheriff to impose Stage 2 Fire Restrictions for unincorporated Boulder County, including on city-owned Open Space and Mountain Parks properties across the system.

While the city already has permanent fire restrictions in place, today’s city manager rule specifically prohibits:

• Building, maintaining, attending or using an open fire, campfire, or stove fire on private and public lands. While open burning was already prohibited, this new rule expands the ban to charcoal grills and barbecues, coal and wood burning stoves and sheepherder’s stoves, and includes use in developed camping and picnic grounds
• No recreational shooting or use of firearms. Hunting is only permitted with a valid in-season license.
• Smoking, except in an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreation site, or while stopped in an area at least ten feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable materials
• Operating a chainsaw without a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) or Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) approved spark arrester properly installed and in effective working order, a chemical pressurized fire extinguisher kept with the operator and one round point shovel with an overall length of at least 35 inches readily available for use
• Using an explosive of doing any kind of blasting work. This includes but is not limited to fuses or blasting caps, fireworks, rockets, exploding targets, and tracers or incendiary ammunition
• Welding or operating acetylene or other torch with open flame outdoors
• Possessing or using a motor vehicle off established roads, motorized trails or established parking areas, except when parking in an area devoid of vegetation within 10 feet of the vehicle
• All prohibitions already contained in the Boulder Revised Code § 1981 (B.R.C. § 1981) are still in effect. These include laws against the sale, use or possession of fireworks.

The fires that are currently burning along the Front Range remind us that there can be serious consequences when small sparks find their way to flammable lands and materials. Making good choices during weather like this will help lessen the chance of a wildfire.

“The weather right now is hot and dry. The dew point is low in the morning and the humidity is low during the day. Vegetation is also dry which means that a small spark is likely to escalate,” Boulder Fire-Rescue Chief Michael Calderazzo said. "With stretched resources, we all need to do our part to reduce the need for another large-scale fire response."

While the emergency rule gives city authorities more enforcement options, Rivera-Vandermyde said she hopes it simply has the effect of making people more fire aware.

“I think most of us understand that open campfires and trash burning are not a good idea in conditions like these, but we may not be considering other kinds of dangers. We urge our community to please use extreme caution when cooking or working outside. Make sure that if you are grilling, you are using propane on a non-combustible surface and you are at least 10 feet away from any structures. This is not the time to do discretionary work that involves equipment that could cast sparks on dry lands. We’re taking extreme caution in our operations and ask the public to do the same,” she said. “Here in Boulder, we do an amazing job of rallying as a community when something bad happens. This is our chance to come together proactively to prevent something bad from happening.”

**There has been an update to this emergency rule. Please see the article for City of Boulder revises emergency rule to allow welding – previously it had been temporarily banned for more information about the update.