In the News

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen was in Florence on Monday night to visit with Fremont County residents about the impact of the Aspen Acres Fire.

The fire, which ignited June 29, rapidly became one of the state’s largest fires and has since consumed more than 102,000 acres and displaced thousands in evacuation efforts. Though no homes were lost in Fremont County, the impact of the fire has been felt in neighboring communities with the loss of hundreds of homes.

“How many people here felt prepared when you were worried about the wildfire coming into Fremont County?” Pettersen kicked off with a simple question.

The room was quiet in response.

Pettersen said earlier this year, she and her team were trying to brainstorm how to get in front of wildfire risk in the 7th Congressional District, and they attempted to “have more due diligence about sending out information about where to sign up for emergency response, what you need to know to mitigate wildfires to protect your home, but also where to go for emergency information.”

She shared that her office was able to send out one wildfire-related newsletter before the fire popped off, but that she hopes to put together a fully rendered response plan for Colorado residents, including evacuation protocols, victim assistance and area recovery funds.

“Once we get through this, we want to have a comprehensive plan, a step-by-step plan,” she said. “As a community, it’s really important that we come together to talk about what went well and what we need to learn from.”

Pettersen also said that the area has had to limp forward without necessary funding because the federal government had “unlawfully withheld” funding needed for emergency coordination during the Aspen Acres Fire response.

It was unclear if Pettersen referred to the federal government’s refusal to declare the fire a major disaster, which would unlock broader federal assistance, or canceled or frozen resilience grant programs.

Attendees mirrored her concerns, noting the recent U.S. Forest Service workforce reduction, which ultimately eliminated thousands of positions, save for frontline firefighters.

Pettersen went on to state that her plan moving forward is two-fold: verifying that people affected by a fire at any given time have the information they need while also introducing federal legislation to correct current fire mitigation efforts.

When she opened the floor for discussion and questions, one theme continued to emerge: lack of proper communication about fire behavior and evacuation status.

Coal Creek resident TJ Acken detailed the confusion he and his extended family faced while trying to celebrate his 49th wedding anniversary.

“We got the pre-evacuation order…so we rustled everything up [and left],” he said. “But then I found the information about what evacuees should be doing was nonexistent. The Fremont County website had zero information for evacuees. When I called nine different phone numbers on that website, none of them had a real person answering the phone.”

He went on to note that the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office website also failed to convey the information he was searching for and, after attempting and failing to load the county’s emergency notification system called Everbridge, realized the gap in communication for evacuees like him.

“I could find nobody in Fremont County taking responsibility for tossing us out of our home,” he said.

He and his family returned to their home during the pre-evacuation and status but promptly packed up and left once again when the evacuation notification came out just an hour later. He went on to detail that, for many days afterwards, he received no information about what was happening with the fire or evacuation status.

“If you’re going to toss people out of their homes, you better have a system for giving them clear information,” he said.

Pettersen said she hoped to host a variety of community meetings, like the one in Florence, to more fully understand what people need to know regarding fire response.

“These stories are really important because it takes resources, it takes upfront planning, it takes execution, and then we also need to be proactive on thinking what we can do at the federal level to incentivize those practices,” she said.

Florence resident Kathy Madonna inquired about continued training, not only for firefighters, but also for the Fremont County Sheriff, who is the de facto fire marshal for the county, regardless of fire experience.

“Maybe we can bring federal incentives, and that’s part of the recommendation of changes we can make,” Pettersen replied. “We need to make sure that we’re addressing that immediately when we get the chance.”

The discussion strayed into other topics, such as voter fraud, ICE expansion, and the Iran war, but Pettersen ended the evening with a simple statement.

“We have to do everything we can to conserve water right now and…we need to have a water plan in Congress,” she said. ‘This will be an incredibly difficult issue to navigate.”