Colorado wildfire forces evacuations as government is accused of slow response

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/12/colorado-wildfire-evacuations-government-response

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Dozens of homeowners in northern Colorado have been issued with evacuation notices to escape wildfires fanned by winds and a severe drought, as fears grew that federal agencies were stretched.

The White House was under growing pressure on Tuesday to approve new air tankers for the forest service, whose ageing air fleet has been falling into disrepair.

The national interagency fire centre reported 19 active fires burning in nine states on Tuesday, including the Colorado fire which was burning about 15 miles from the town of Fort Collins. Evacuation notices were issued in Larimer County.

New Mexico was fighting two active fires, including one that is already the largest in the state's recorded history.

One woman was killed in Colorado when the fire consumed her cabin, and nearly 120 structures have been destroyed since the fire started on Saturday, with a lightning strike.

In all, more than 2,600 households have been told to evacuate, and the fire covered more than 64 square miles by Monday evening.

Even before the latest outbreaks, fire scientists warned of an increased risk of severe wildfires this year, across the south-west and west and into the mid-west, because of prolonged drought.

The forecast has sharpened fears that budget cuts, ordered by Congress, have eaten into firefighting capabilities. Congress cut more than $500m from the wildfire budget this year.

The federal government has been under attack from members of Congress for moving too slowly to upgrade its aerial firefighting capabilities.

Western Senators have accused the forest service of moving too slowly to replace its old fleet of large-scale air tankers. The planes, some of Korean war vintage, have slowly been failing into disrepair over the last decade. "This fire is just one of several burning across the parched western states right now, including several others on northern and south-western Colorado," Colorado Senator Mark Udall said in a statement. "I will be keeping a close watch to make sure this fire continues to get the resources that it needs."

The forest service chief, Tom Tidwell, insists the federal government has the resources to protect life and property at a time of increasing wildfires.

"We have enough resources at this time to be able to deal with the fires we currently are dealing with and what we expect to have to deal with the rest of this fire season," Tidwell told the Associated Press last week.

But wildfire experts say the forest service is dangerously exposed by its lack of big air tankers, which are crucial to putting out fires in the early stages. The fleet has dropped by 80% over the last decade.

By last month, only nine aircraft remained usable. The forest service moved to bring in more air tankers on Monday and Tuesday, bumping up the fleet to 17 large air tankers. It said on Tuesday it had the capability to mobilise an additional 11 air tankers, if circumstances warrant.

Jim Karels, a forest service officer from Florida who heads the National Association of State Foresters, said the squeeze on air tankers made it difficult for firefighters to confront a number of simultaneous fires – as they have been facing this year.

"The fleet has dropped considerably over the years. Many of them are vintage military aircraft that are coming to the end of their life spans for this kind of work," he said.

"If you get a large number of new starts you tend to get behind and as the fires do get bigger having enough air tankers to spread out between a large number of fires is very tough to co-ordinate," he said. "Where you really get behind with a smaller fleet like this is when you get a significant amount of lightning fires all starting at once, and then you run out of aircraft to keep those fires small."

He added: "That hasn't happened yet. But it could happen."