Wildfire

Boulder is at risk from fast-moving wildfire, and windy red flag days are on the , dry conditions turn sparks into flames and high winds carry burning embers long distances, so fire can spread from home to home across Boulder’s roughly 50,000 private properties. The good news is that when enough homes and yards resist ignition, a fire slows and firefighters have more time to protect all of us. That makes wildfire protection something we can build together, one property at a time, adding up to protection for the whole community.

This issue is personal to me. My wife, Steph, and I fled the Bay Area after multiple summers of unlivable wildfire smoke, and Steph held a leadership position at PG&E during their wildfire response and public safety power shutoffs. California is about a decade ahead of Colorado in learning how to live with wildfire, and I bring that experience with me. I’m also hardening my own home in stages, working from its assessment.

What I’m Working On

I’ve focused on turning wildfire risk into community-wide protection that grows every year, so Boulder can thrive in a fire-prone landscape.

Building foundations for community-wide protection. Expanded Boulder’s wildfire hardening zone, where new homes and remodels must meet fire-resistant building and landscaping standards, from about 4,600 properties to more than 16,000. Co-designed council’s 2026 wildfire workplan priority with Councilmember Rob Kaplan, which commissioned a cost-benefit study of options to scale up protection and a one-stop home hardening hub for residents. Now supporting Wildfire Ready 2030, the city’s new framework to harden homes, both the buildings and the yards around them, starting in our highest-risk neighborhoods.

Enabling cost-effective, timely scaling up by making sure residents have reliable access to effective, affordable home hardening services. Boulder’s home assessments are leading to real progress, with staff documenting 824 individual fixes so far. After an assessment, though, the next steps are largely up to residents. I’m working to build an ecosystem of strong services, guided by the city, with a marketplace of trusted providers at its core. You call one provider, get a clear quote, find a way to pay that fits your budget, and the city knows when the job is done. Public money goes furthest when good services unlock private investment, providers can carry the reporting that falls on busy homeowners today, and steady demand brings costs down and quality up. As the marketplace grows, it can reach neighborhoods well beyond the formal wildland-urban interface, since wind-driven fires like the Marshall Fire have shown they can burn far from the foothills. Read more in my newsletter essay, Why the City Must Help Build Strong Services for Home Wildfire Hardening.

Reliable power and safe evacuation. Wildfire protection and power reliability have to be solved together, since high winds damage lines, lines can start fires, and shutoffs protect us while disrupting lives. I led council’s 2026 statement of expectations for Xcel, and I’m pushing for a council task force to make outages fewer and shorter. I’m also bringing a scientific approach to evacuation and egress, strengthening the multimodal plan so people who don’t or can’t drive are accounted for, and making sure aging residents and other vulnerable neighbors get attention in an emergency.

What’s Next

I’m working to:

☐ Build a network of trusted providers who can take a hardening job from start to finish

☐ Create standards and assurances to ensure high-quality work

☐ Pool orders and financing to get residents better deals

☐ Automate reporting so we all know how our protection is adding up

☐ Set and track annual community hardening targets, focusing public dollars on the highest-risk neighborhoods first

☐ Move toward targeted hardening requirements once residents have a clear, affordable way to meet them

☐ Require landlords to complete wildfire risk assessments, and bring renters into home hardening

☐ Form a council task force with a public roadmap for fewer and shorter power outages

☐ Develop a redevelopment protocol in case a significant part of Boulder is affected by disaster

What We Stand to Gain

Cut the costs of living. Hardening protects homes from fire and helps keep insurance available and affordable, and a strong services marketplace makes each home faster and cheaper to protect.

Adapting to a changing world. Protection that compounds year after year, as neighbors learn from neighbors and providers grow, is how Boulder keeps pace with a hotter, windier climate.

Creating a trustworthy, effective government. A city that sets clear targets, tracks results, and gets the most protection for every public dollar is a government residents can rely on.

Climate-aligned decisions. Wildfire is one of many climate shocks, and the same service networks can later deliver weatherization, heat pumps, and battery backup, building on Boulder’s all-hazards approach to climate action.