Larkspur fire chief warns Douglas County wildfire risk is real

After 72 hours battling the Aspen Acres Fire in southern Colorado, Larkspur Fire Chief Timothy McCawley came home with a direct warning for Douglas County: wildfire is not a distant threat, and it can move into local neighborhoods faster than residents expect. He said the blaze unfolded in unusually dry, fast-moving and unpredictable conditions, the kind of fire behavior that should push homeowners in Larkspur and across southern Douglas County to prepare before the next red-flag day arrives.

McCawley has spent 26 years in the fire service, but he said the Aspen Acres incident was still tragic. Crews had to build containment lines wider than normal to keep flames from escaping again, a sign of how unstable the fire remained even after initial suppression work. When McCawley spoke about the blaze, it was 35% contained; later updates pushed containment to 36%, and by July 13 the fire had burned 98,609 acres. More than 850 structures were destroyed, more than 1,930 personnel were assigned, and officials were preparing phased re-entry for some Beulah residents as conditions improved.

For Douglas County, McCawley’s warning lands in a place where the landscape already raises the stakes. The county says homes intermixed with wildland vegetation are at risk, especially in the wildland-urban interface that stretches through Larkspur and much of southern Douglas County. County mitigation efforts include a wildfire cost-share program and a chipping program aimed at reducing fuel around homes and neighborhoods. The message behind those programs is blunt: planning ahead increases the chance a home survives wildfire.

Larkspur Fire Protection District covers 110 square miles in Douglas County and operates three stations, with mutual aid agreements that can bring in help when extra people or equipment are needed. McCawley was named fire chief on November 27, 2023, after serving as assistant chief in Bennett, and his experience in southern Colorado is now feeding into local readiness conversations at home.

Colorado’s wildfire record adds more pressure to that message. State fire history shows 20 of Colorado’s 20 largest wildfires by acreage have occurred since 2002, 17 of the top 20 since 2012, 11 since 2018 and six since 2020. In that context, McCawley’s advice is less about a distant disaster than about a pattern already shaping the state: clear defensible space, harden structures where possible and know how to leave quickly if fire threatens Douglas County again.