The NCAR Fire is the rare wildfire remembered as a win, proof that mitigation works when it counts.
On March 26, 2022, just three months after the Marshall Fire, a fire broke out near the National Center for Atmospheric Research above south Boulder. It threatened hundreds of homes, but firefighters, aided by years of prescribed burns, fuel breaks and defensible space around the neighborhood, stopped it at 190 acres with zero structures lost.
The NCAR Fire is now cited as a model of how community-scale fuels work and home-by-home defensible space can blunt a wildfire's impact, even in extreme conditions.
Every major Colorado fire reinforces the same lesson: the homes most likely to survive are the ones prepared before a fire starts. It is the clearest local evidence that the mitigation steps we recommend are not theoretical, they save homes. Creating defensible space, hardening the home against embers, and documenting the work for insurance and grant funding are the highest-leverage steps a homeowner can take.
Homeowners in south Boulder and the surrounding area can get a free assessment from our Boulder County and Boulder teams.
Not sure where your property stands? Check your wildfire risk score in under a minute, watch for new starts on the active fires map, and set up emergency fire alerts so you never miss an evacuation order.
The Marshall Fire (2021) destroyed 1,084 homes in Boulder County, the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history. Cause, damage, deaths, $2B+ losses and what it changed.
Read the overviewThe CalWood Fire (2020) burned 10,113 acres near Jamestown in Boulder County and destroyed 26 homes. Cause, size and aftermath.
Read the overviewThe Fourmile Canyon Fire (2010) burned 6,181 acres west of Boulder and destroyed 169 homes, most destructive in CO at the time. Cause and aftermath.
Read the overviewThe complete, searchable record of every major Colorado wildfire in history.
Open the full guide190 acres above south Boulder.
Despite threatening hundreds of homes, defensible space and fuel breaks helped firefighters stop it with zero homes lost.
