Colorado Wildfire Task Force Tackles Building in Burn Zones

As firefighting crews continue to tackle the Black Forest Fire in what has become the state's most destructive fire in Colorado history, a wildfire task force created by Governor John Hickenlooper has been at work drafting tougher limits for home development in burn zones.

Black Forest firefighting costs alone have already exceeded $5 million, 502 homes have been lost -- and that number is still expected to grow, according to El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa -- and two lives have been lost.

"If we don't get our arms around this problem now, it's going to run away from us," deputy state forester Joe Duda told The Denver Post on Monday. "Now is the time."

Duda is part of the 18-member Task Force on Wildfire Insurance and Forest Health that was launched last January by Hickenlooper in an executive order meant to review and improve post- and pre-wildfire issues like insurance coverage policies, forest health and preventative actions like prescribed slash pile burning. Fees assessed on people who choose to live in forests, mandatory disclosure of wildfire risks before home sales and tougher building codes are among measures that members of the task force are considering.

According to Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research group that focuses on land management and community growth in the west, federal wildfire costs have averaged more than $3 billion a year and they're only getting worse.

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ASCE Releases Damage Report on Joplin Tornado

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released a damage report on the EF5 multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Mo., in May 2011. Overall, the tornado killed 158 people, injured some 1,150 others, and caused damages amounting to a total of $2.8 billion.

National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists say their EF5 rating is based on post-observation of well-built structures that were completely torn off their foundations, and concrete parking stops (bolted to the ground) that were picked up and thrown by the destructive winds. The ASCE estimates wind speeds and damage by including how structurally sound a building is. Their damage report includes only wood-framed houses and buildings.

"The vast majority, 83 percent of the damage, was at the EF2 category or lower. The EF2 category, with wind speeds of 110-137 miles per hour, accounts for the largest percentage, 31 percent of the damage severity," according to the ASCE. The organization report suggests that a building's structural integrity could have made it collapse even at wind speeds lower than 200 miles per hour. Many of the houses in Joplin were built before World War II, with only 10 percent built after 2000.

Building Official Steven Cope reinforces the findings of the report. "Not everything is damaged by only the EF4 or EF5 tornados," said Cope. "We saw complete roofs that were removed, sitting in the road, but the shingles were still on them. So, it was obvious that the roof came off before it started pushing shingles off."

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