The Spring Creek Fire was the largest of Colorado’s severe 2018 fire season.
Starting June 27, 2018 near La Veta Pass in southern Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo range, the fire burned 108,045 acres and destroyed roughly 141 homes. A foreign national was charged with starting it with an illegal cooking fire during a fire ban.
Every major Colorado fire reinforces the same lesson: the homes most likely to survive are the ones prepared before a fire starts. It struck a part of Colorado that doesn’t always think of itself as fire country, proof that risk is statewide. 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.
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 416 Fire (2018) burned 54,129 acres north of Durango, sparked by a coal-fired tourist train. Cause, size, the $20M settlement and aftermath.
Read the overviewThe Lake Christine Fire (2018) burned 12,588 acres near Basalt in Eagle County, started by tracer rounds at a shooting range. Facts and aftermath.
Read the overviewThe Hayman Fire (2002) burned 138,114 acres SW of Denver, Colorado's largest until 2020. Cause (arson), 600 structures, deaths and aftermath.
Read the overviewThe complete, searchable record of every major Colorado wildfire in history.
Open the full guide108,045 acres in Costilla and Huerfano Counties.
Human-caused, a man was charged with starting it with an illegal fire during a burn ban.
