The sky turned a muted orange. Then the ash started falling. It fell down from the sky like snowflakes, coating every surface in a blackened soot. The wind picked up, carrying twirling debris along with it. A smoky haze filled the air that clutched your throat and stung your eyes. Noon became midnight, and for a moment I wondered if the fire burning in rugged high-elevation forests west of Fort Collins, Colorado could spread to the city, too.
2020 was a watershed year for wildfires in the state of Colorado. Within the span of about four months from August to December, the Cameron Peak, East Troublesome, and Pine Gulch fires had become the three largest in state history. Their scale and intensity were unprecedented. The East Troublesome Fire exploded by 120,000 acres in one day, jumping the continental divide above treeline into Rocky Mountain National Park. The Cameron Peak Fire, the largest of them all, became the first wildfire to burn more than 200,000 acres in the state. Idyllic mountain towns such as Grand Lake and Estes Park were thrown into chaos as the fires forced rapid evacuations.
A year later, in December 2021, another wildfire shocked the state. Boulder, Colorado was in the throes of a snow drought, having just experienced its second driest and third hottest fall on record since 1893. On the morning of December 30th, a mountain wave event fueling up to 100 mph wind gusts facilitated the spread of the Marshall Fire. The fire quickly swept across dry grasslands and into suburban neighborhoods, where it evolved into an urban conflagration. The Marshall Fire became the most destructive in Colorado history, destroying 1,084 structures and causing $2 billion in damages.
In Colorado and across the West, wildfires are growing larger, more frequent, and more destructive. Multiple factors are attributed to the trend in increased wildfire risk, including the legacy of historical fire suppression, intensive grazing and land management practices, increasing development in the wildland urban interface (WUI), and climate change.
Consequently, more and more people are being exposed to the impacts of wildfire. The prolonged decline in air quality, the post-fire impairment of water quality affecting municipal drinking water supplies and ecosystems, and the destruction of suburban neighborhoods are just some of the direct consequences.
Wildfire risk manifests in more indirect ways, too. The 25-year megadrought gripping the Colorado River Basin, made more severe due to warmer temperatures caused by climate change, is producing conditions more conducive to wildfire ignition and spread by reducing snowpack, drying out fuels, and increasing chronic tree stress. This poses a significant problem for places such as Colorado where about 80% of the population depends upon forested watersheds for their water supply.
As an aspiring water manager who felt these impacts tangibly, I knew I wanted to better understand wildfire behavior and response—and contribute to solutions. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to take the NWCG S-130/S-190/L-180 Basic Wildland Firefighter training. The training was organized by Fire Student Interest Group leaders Josie Valette (MEM ‘25) and Nate McMullen (MF ‘25) and administered through Tall Timbers with funding support from Ucross.
The training helped me to learn the language and structure of the wildland firefighting world. How to construct a handline, how to properly brief and debrief a fire assignment, how fuels, topography, and climate affect fire behavior, how to work effectively with others on an incident, and how to maintain situational awareness under dynamic and constantly changing conditions.
Moreover, the training taught me how to think of fire within a larger integrated socio-ecological system and why strong relationships and robust communication are critical.
I hope to use the training to coordinate with communities and other partners to reduce wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface, protect watershed health, and make communities, forests, and water infrastructure more resilient to climate change and wildfire threats. Perhaps I’ll even volunteer for a local fire department.
With wildfire risk constantly evolving, proactive and informed management is critical. How we design fire-adapted communities in the WUI, employ beneficial fire on the landscape, or mitigate dAestructive wildfire risk under a changing climate matters for ecological and human well-being. Furthermore, people must inherently be part of the equation, from boundary-spanning, multi-partner collaboration to direct community participation.
This training provides the foundational knowledge needed to begin thinking about these problems.
And when the next fire comes, I’ll be better prepared to respond.
Aidan Lyde | Aidan is a Master of Environmental Management candidate at Yale School of the Environment focusing on water resources management and environmental policy analysis. Prior to YSE, Aidan worked for organizations including the U.S. Department of the Interior, Colorado General Assembly, and Colorado State University Extension. His interests include watershed stressors, policy, and water augmentation in the Colorado River Basin, wildfire risk mitigation planning in wildfire-vulnerable communities in Colorado, ways to effectively communicate environmental problems and sustainable solutions to the public, and environmental youth activism. Originally from Colorado, Aidan holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies from Colorado State University. In his free time, Aidan enjoys the outdoors through hiking, skiing, camping, and photography.