Colorado’s wildfire Red Zone investigation

The High Park fire burns in the foothills over Rist Canyon in Roosevelt National Forest near Bellvue, Colo., on June 10, the day the fire made its largest run and 10 years to the day after the Hayman fire had its most destructive run.

As multiple wildfires rage across Colorado, I-News is able to add vital context to a serious breaking story.

This morning, we released to our media partners an investigation into wildfires in Colorado. We found that both the number of fires and the number of Coloradans living in the high-risk red zones has exploded in the past two decades.
And we describe how public policies risk making matters worse.
So as thousands of people now are being evacuated from their homes in the path of wildfire, I-News can tell Colorado how many people in each county now live in red zones, how that population has changed and what our current policies mean for the future.
You can learn more in your local news outlet. Or access the Red Zone investigation results here on our website. If you value this kind of in-depth reporting on important issues, please support it. Your donations are tax deductible.

  • Effected by fire

    I just read part of Sunday’s I- news article “paradise in a powder keg” which talked about increased populations in high risk fire zones. Those comments are closed. in that article the writers highlighted how the people who live in those high risk zones are not the ones responsible for paying the high cost to stop a fire, so they have “perverse” incentive to live there. My parents lost their house in the High Park Fire, I was there evacuating them and loved that house and area, I am sort of disgusted the writers of that article would hint that these evacuated people should pay the millions of fire fighting costs. Manyof these people lost their homes, their insurance will cover the costs… but the devestation of the fire isn’t enough and these writers want to hint they should pay for the cost of stopping the fire too? have some decent respect writers, at least give these people a chance to get through it before you speculate. natural fires are not any people’s fault. hould hurricane victims pay all the cost of rebuilding lost areas and cities too, on top of their homes? I couldn’t even finish your article!