Archuleta County Sheriff Mike Le Roux gave a presentation to the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) during a work session held on Tuesday, Jan. 21, addressing how fires are responded to within the county.
Conversation also touched on recent fires and the fire danger in the area.
The presentation came after Commissioner John Ranson requested to hear about emergency management plans with the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO), with Ranson mentioning destruction being caused by wildfires currently happening in California and wanting to know how the county would respond to a similar crisis.
During the Jan. 21 work session, Le Roux began by explaining what the ACSO is responsible for under state statutes.
“Basically, in a nutshell, what those refer to is the sheriff’s responsibility for suppression of wildland fires, but also the conduit to the state to leverage resources in the event we have a significant event,” Le Roux said, explaining that the sheriff’s office acts mostly as a coordination piece.
He noted that the majority of counties’ unincorporated lands in the state are covered by a fire protection district.
“Here in Archuleta, we’re unlucky enough that we’re not,” Le Roux said, explaining that the rest of the unincorporated lands within the county “falls on the sheriff’s office from an initial attack wildland response point of view.”
He added, “We in addition run a wildland fire initial attack crew with a fire apparatus that we house under the Division of Emergency Operations, falling under the sheriff’s office.”
Archuleta County is served by three fire protection districts: the Pagosa Fire Protection District (PFPD), Los Pinos Fire Protection District and Upper Pine River Fire Protection District, with the PFPD covering the most land of the three, Le Roux noted.
He indicated that Los Pinos covers areas near Arboles, while the Upper Pine covers a stretch along U.S. 160 near Yellow Jacket pass, leaving about 220 square miles of wildland district exclusively for the sheriff’s office to cover.
For the remaining land left to the ACSO, it runs two type six engines and a type four engine, Le Roux indicated, mentioning one is a county-owned asset and the other two units are leased “at a competitive rate” from the state at $200 a year.
Between those three units, “we have the ability to carry 1,500 gallons of water,” Le roux said.
He also mentioned that the ACSO is responsible for parts of Mineral and Hinsdale counties with private inholdings, noting there are other fire response agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Bureau of Land Management.
Le Roux referred to a map of fire protection in Archuleta County as a “pretty crazy patchwork of jurisdictional complexities.”
He went on to explain that the ACSO is under a five-year operating agreement plan that has a total of 14 signatories, including neighboring counties and fire resource agencies, that addresses how fires are responded to in our area.
He explained there is a “mandatory mutual aid component” that lies between the agencies.
“We’ve always had excellent working relationships with all of our partners, so the document until now has never really been tested,” Le Roux said. “Everybody responds to everybody’s fire all of the time with whatever resources they can because we realize where we are. We’re at the end of nowhere, which is why we live here and why we love it, but getting resources from further afield tends to have issues and there’s time constraints getting it.”
He went on to explain that the agreement set up a program in which the ACSO can front-load state assets within the first 24 hours of an event that is free to the county.
“Every big fire starts as a small fire, and every big cost always started as a small cost,” Le Roux said.
Le Roux spoke about the Chris Mountain and Coal Mountain fires that occurred in Archuleta County in 2023, and how there were certain areas in the county as a top concern such as high density living next to the national forest.
“It’s not the last time we’re gonna have fires up there,” Le Roux added.
He explained that, after those fires, the Forest Service mapped those entire areas showing what values may be at risk in the event of another fire.
“There’s lots of forested area on the backside of County Road 700, north of County Road 500 that has the potential to do some damage,” Le Roux said.
Le Roux explained that the ACSO purchased a subscription for a software known as Zonehaven that can predict what a fire has the potential to do without any suppression by incorporating factors like weather.
He also mentioned the software can provide an estimate as to how many people, homes or vehicles may be in an area that can potentially be affected from a fire event.
Le Roux also explained the ACSO is responsible for evacuation orders, noting that the goal is to get the notification out as soon as possible, but just because smoke may be visible that doesn’t necessarily mean evacuations are needed, using the Coal Mountain fire as an example in that the fire was far enough back in the forest that it wasn’t going to affect the county.
Archuleta County uses an emergency notification system called Nixle that citizens can sign up for to receive notifications, Le Roux explained.
He went on to explain that the ACSO is not responsible for evacuating animals from ranches, “but I’m an animal guy,” explaining that the emergency response crews will “do what we can.”
He noted there are limited resources for that.
Le Roux encouraged the public to make a plan in case of such an event, specifically noting that it can be beneficial to practice trailering horses beforehand.
“All of that stuff ahead of time certainly helps first responders,” he said.
Fire season
Emergency Operations Deputy Director Roy Vega was also in attendance with Le Roux during the work session and added that conversations are happening in preparation for “upcoming fire season, but we’re in the fire season right now.”
Vega cautioned that grass can still catch fire in extreme cold temperatures, like Archuleta County has been experiencing recently.
Le Roux explained that there have been two wildland fires in Archuleta County this month, one occurring on Jan. 11 and one on Jan. 16, each burning approximately two to four acres.
He noted that one of the fires was “started by juveniles erroneously,” and the other likely from unsafe burning practices.
He explained that the ACSO had issues with the fire truck’s water lines freezing during one of those events.
“No one expects to fight fire in 2 below,” he said, explaining that the lack of snow on the ground makes wildland fires a real concern this time of year.
“We’re much the same as we were in 2017, in the winter. In fact, I think we’re probably worse off than we were,” he added.
Le Roux indicated that he foresees this summer being similar to 2018, when the entire forest was shut down for a Stage 3 fire ban.
He also spoke about the fire mitigation work within the county, noting there’s “been a lot of positive mitigation projects around the county.”
He went on to say that fire responsibility starts with homeowners and responsible burning practices, “and what we have is a lot of people that don’t burn responsibly.”
He explained that the county has an ordinance mandating that everyone needs a burn permit in order to burn on property.
Burn permits are available from the PFPD for $10.
Le Roux added that, when done correctly, burning as a form of mitigation“is not a bad option.”
He then predicted that “we will almost certainly go into a Stage 1 fire ban shortly,” and will likely follow with a Stage 2 fire ban.
Commissioner Veronica Medina asked about a U.S. Forest Service program known as Virtual Incident Procurement that allows community members to offer support in such events.
Le Roux indicated that the program allows community members to provide fire suppression equipment to first responders.
“I think the biggest assistance that we can have as a county is for people to be responsible with their actions moving forward,” he added.
LPEA
During the same work session, the BoCC met with La Plata Electric Association (LPEA) CEO Chris Hansen, who started with LPEA in November 2024.
Hansen also spoke about what LPEA is doing in terms of fire resistance and mitigation work.
“Fire is top of mind for everyone … also top of mind for us,” Hansen said, “We are really actively looking at how we can strengthen our fire mitigation capabilities as your local utility.”
He mentioned that LPEA’s first line of defense is around vegetation management, noting that it “drastically lowers” the chances of a fire starting due to electrical equipment.
He also mentioned LPEA is “using a number of tools” to do that, including satellite imagery, image processing software and drone inspection on a frequent basis.
Hansen indicated that LPEA is also looking into policies around deactivation of lines during high wind and storm events, noting there’s “pros and cons of that.”
“So, those are a few of the things top of mind for us as we refresh and increase our wildfire mitigation capability,” he said.
clayton@pagosasun.com