A few days ago, Hugo Ferchau, chief of the Gunnison County Fire Protection District, sent eight firefighters and two engines to assist crews battling the Gold Mountain fire near Ouray.
He’s also helping coordinate Gunnison’s annual Fourth of July fireworks show, scheduled for Saturday night at Jorgensen Park.
If those two things seem contradictory, Ferchau says they’re not.
“I think as long as we’re able to ensure people’s safety, we would like to do whatever we can to allow the community to come together and celebrate in the way they typically do,” he said.
Amid one of Colorado’s most dangerous starts to fire season in years, dozens of Colorado communities have canceled Independence Day fireworks displays as wildfires rage across the state and fire restrictions spread across the Western Slope. But a handful of towns — including Gunnison, Meeker, Bayfield and Cortez — say their professional shows can still be conducted safely.
The decision comes as Colorado has 16 active wildfires burning statewide. Several Western Slope counties, along with the White River National Forest, San Juan National Forest, and Upper Colorado River District of the Bureau of Land Management, have enacted Stage 2 fire restrictions, which prohibit personal fireworks and other activities capable of producing sparks. Professional displays are still allowed with approval from local authorities, but dozens of Colorado communities have canceled their fiery shows, citing the increased fire hazards.
Personal fireworks that explode or leave the ground are already illegal in Colorado, while Stage 2 restrictions also prohibit typically legal consumer fireworks such as sparklers and fountains.
Communities including Vail, Aspen, Rifle, Craig and Montrose have canceled their fireworks shows, citing dangerous fire conditions and strained firefighting resources. On Tuesday, Silverton canceled its display for the first time in six years, joining nearby Rico and Durango, which also canceled its show last summer due to ongoing drought and the high fire risk posed by the explosives.
“We want to be proactive given the existing conditions and forecast and pivot to invest in a Fourth of July celebration that’s predictable, sustainable, and evolving with our community,” said Eric Bulrice, Durango’s community events supervisor.
In Gunnison, Ferchau said his department has spent more than two decades refining its safety plan. Ferchau said decisions about fireworks should be made locally rather than through a one-size-fits-all approach.
“The people who know their locations and their conditions should be making those decisions,” he said. “We talk about the weather, the burn index, and fuel moisture every single day. It’s not something we take lightly.”
The fireworks are launched from an area surrounded by irrigated softball fields, a dog park, wetlands and hayfields, with fire engines stationed on three sides of the launch site. Furthermore, Ferchau said, the professionally managed display could actually help reduce wildfire risk by giving residents an alternative to setting off fireworks on their own.
“We know how to mitigate the risks,” he said. “We’d sure prefer that people came and watched our fireworks than these rogue things that happen and light sagebrush fires and the things we’re trying to avoid.”
That doesn’t mean the show is guaranteed. Ferchau said officials continue to evaluate weather, fire behavior and resource availability each day. The Gold Mountain fire, burning to the southwest of Gunnison, has already drawn local firefighters away on assignment, and another large incident could force officials to cancel the display at the last minute.
“As we move forward, there’s always a risk-benefit analysis,” he said. “If we have to cancel at the last minute, we’ll do it. But proceeding with the community event is the goal at this point.”
About 200 miles northwest, Meeker Fire Rescue Chief Luke Pelloni reached a similar conclusion.
Meeker’s fireworks are launched over irrigated fields near the White River, where Pelloni said the surrounding landscape remains green despite the dry conditions elsewhere in the county.
“We have a really unique situation,” Pelloni said. “If you look at aerial photographs, there’s not a lot of risk where it is. There are a lot of other places in my district I’m a lot more worried about right now.” (In August last year, Meeker sat between the 137,000-acre Lee fire to the southwest and the 14,000-acre Elk fire to the east.)
In Cortez, city officials also cited the safety of the location of their show, even as the Ferris fire continued burning across the San Juan National Forest north of Dolores. In a statement, they said Parque de Vida is “uniquely positioned” to safely host fireworks because the launch site sits in the middle of irrigated park grounds. They added that the show remains subject to changing weather or fire conditions.
In Meeker, crews will still take additional precautions this year, including watering the launch area before the show and staffing extra engines and firefighters. And like Gunnison and Cortez, Pelloni said his town has not ruled out a last-minute cancellation.
“If we’re busy, if we have other fires, we’ll pull the plug,” he said. “We’re basing all of our decisions on the facts.”
Pelloni said he’s heard from residents in support of and against the decision to proceed with the fireworks display in light of the current wildfires burning across the state. After speaking with them, he believes most come to understand the department’s reasoning to endorse the show after learning about its location and safety measures.
“If I wasn’t really confident that we could do this without any sort of problems,” he said, “it would be very easy to pull the plug.”