One of five major fires in Colorado's record 2020 season, the Williams Fork Fire burned in the Fraser Experimental Forest and threatened the Winter Park area.
Igniting August 14, 2020, the human-caused Williams Fork Fire grew to 14,833 acres in steep, beetle-killed timber south of Fraser. It destroyed no homes but strained firefighting resources already stretched across the state during one of the worst fire years on record.
Every major Colorado fire reinforces the same lesson: the homes most likely to survive are the ones prepared before a fire starts. It was a reminder that even ‘smaller’ fires threaten mountain communities when the whole state is burning at once. 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 East Troublesome Fire (2020) burned 193,812 acres in Grand County, jumped the Continental Divide and killed two. Colorado's 2nd-largest wildfire, facts, timeline, aftermath.
Read the overviewThe Cameron Peak Fire (2020) burned 208,913 acres in Larimer County, the largest wildfire in Colorado history. Size, cause, homes destroyed, timeline and aftermath.
Read the overviewThe Pine Gulch Fire (2020) burned 139,007 acres north of Grand Junction. Briefly Colorado's largest wildfire ever, cause, size, timeline and why it caused so little damage.
Read the overviewThe complete, searchable record of every major Colorado wildfire in history.
Open the full guide14,833 acres in Grand County near Fraser.
It was human-caused; it ignited August 14, 2020.
