‘First Five Feet’ critical for Aspen homeowners when fire strikes

In the face of flames, nothing is guaranteed. But in the event of a local fire, both Mother Nature and the Aspen Fire Protection District will give preference to homes and properties with completed mitigation work.

Ali Hammond, director of community wildfire resilience and the Aspen Wildfire Foundation, calls this the “First Five Feet.” While wildfire mitigation can — and should — extend farther than that on a property, the first five feet closest to the house can make the biggest difference when winds pick up and embers start to fly.

“The first five feet are the most critical, the most important, for doing your mitigation,” Hammond said at a Wednesday Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority meeting. “Give firefighters enough space to safely defend this home. They’re not going to risk their lives for, candidly, homeowners who haven’t put in the time and effort to create that safe space.”

Creating a defensible space in those first five feet looks like having eaves closed, making siding ignition resilient, having dual-pane tempered windows, replacing wooden mulch with rocks or gravel, clearing leaves below the deck, and reducing fuels like trees touching the home. 

“It’s my job to keep you safe; it’s also my job to keep our firefighters safe,” Aspen Fire Deputy Chief of Operations Jake Andersen said. “I will not risk their lives to save property.”

Even if firefighters can’t make it to a home, this preparation will still give a house a better chance to avoid having embers get caught and ignited.

For fuel reductions, Hammond and Andersen emphasized that not all fuels are created equally. Because aspen trees typically hold more water than other species, they’re “much less of a concern.” Trees like oak brush have higher oil content in their leaves and burn more intensely, and juniper is a high-priority fuel to remove that could be seen bursting into flames amid Aspen’s recent Sunnyside Prescribed Burn.

Hammond also confirmed that the difference between the neighborhoods that burned and didn’t during the 2018 Lake Christine Fire in the Basalt area was wildfire preparedness.

“The only reason that community was saved is that they had done mitigation along that (burn) line prior to the fire,” she said. “The best time to prepare for an emergency is before the actual emergency.”

Andersen admitted that, despite having low confidence in the success of the fire line at the Lake Christine Fire, it was ultimately successful because the fuels of the surviving community were reduced within the past five years. 

“That was crucial,” he said. “The only way for us to be effective against this is for you to do some preparation ahead of time.”

The Aspen Fire Protection District has already identified immediate areas within town where wildfire mitigation work has not been carried out, and the department knows it will not be effective assisting against fire, according to Andersen. He noted the department has been particularly unsuccessful getting ahold of homeowners associations for wildfire assessments, making multi-use complexes an area that they could struggle with.

Pat Wilderotter, Colorado insurance agent, pointed out at Wednesday’s meeting that bans on grills and wood-burning fireplaces could be in Aspen’s future for HOA insurance policies. Carriers are also starting to add a wildfire deductible to plans and dropping those with noncompliance or with deferred maintenance and high wildfire risk.

Free risk assessments are offered to all community members, in addition to a wildfire risk mapper available online where individuals can learn about their area’s exact risk. Aspen Fire’s Community Chipping Program, which has been around for several years on a small scale, will be offering district-wide pick-up services for collected brush; homeowners must sign up online in advance and bring their brush to the curb. 

For these services and more information, anyone can visit aspenfire.com/wildfire.