The Black Forest Fire was reported at about 1 p.m. Although scenic, the community’s natural setting puts it just a spark away from disaster during extremely hot and dry periods, like the one in June 2013.

Today, large houses are nestled throughout the ponderosas at an average price of about $1 million. Developers recognized its potential for an increasingly wealthy class of Coloradans by the early 2000s, the Black Forest was more exurb than natural area. Over the course of the twentieth century, the Black Forest area came to be appreciated for its unique scenery and proximity to urban centers such as Colorado Springs and Castle Rock. In the nineteenth century, the area was prized as a source of scarce timber for buildings in Denver and other cities. The divide’s high altitude (up to 7,700 feet) attracts moisture that allows for the growth of thick forests in an area otherwise dominated by treeless high plains. Black Forest TinderboxĪbout sixty-five miles south of Denver, the Black Forest is composed of shrub oak and ponderosa pine groves atop the Palmer Divide, which separates the drainages of the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers. Already, dry and windy conditions had led to the ignition of several fires around the state, including one in Royal Gorge and another in Rocky Mountain National Park. On June 11, temperatures in Denver reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit, setting a record for the earliest arrival of triple-digit temperatures in the Mile High City. 2013 Fire SeasonĪfter a deadly 2012 fire season that saw June conflagrations near Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, Colorado’s Front Range braced for more record-breaking heat in the summer of 2013. Regardless of the controversy that followed it, the Black Forest Fire remains a warning of the dangers of building large communities in fire-prone landscapes.

Frustrated Black Forest residents eventually filed a $60 million civil lawsuit against the fire district, county, and state, claiming the entire situation had been mishandled. An investigation by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office concluded that the fire was human caused but could not discover how it began.Īfterward, the recovery period was plagued by a feud between the El Paso County Sheriff and the Black Forest Fire chief, who sparred over the cause and handling of the fire. Even though it was fully contained in just nine days, the fire’s proximity to neighborhoods made it the most destructive wildfire in state history: two people died and 486 houses were destroyed, amounting to about $300 million in damage. The Black Forest Fire occurred in mid-June 2013 in a heavily populated woodland area northeast of Colorado Springs.

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