2012 Colorado wildfire coverage: Part 1

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Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire

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TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2012

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Online: Updates on the health-care arguments before the Supreme Court »denverpost.com D EA L IN G W IT H TR A N S IEN T S

JEFFERSON COUNTY

Denver Fire rages in foothills targets camping in city The proposed law has the support of Mayor Michael Hancock, left, and many in the business community, but activists call it a move to criminalize homelessness.

By Jeremy P. Meyer The Denver Post

A large plume of smoke can be seen in the southern foothills of Denver near Roxborough and Conifer on Monday afternoon. A fire that covered about 15 acres at 5 p.m. had blown up to cover more than 3,000 acres Monday night. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

One death is investigated in the blaze that destroys several homes and forces the evacuation of 900 more.

By Joey Bunch and Ryan Parker The Denver Post

jefferson county» Fire crews from across the region tried to establish a perimeter overnight on a 3,000-acre Lower North Fork Fire in Jefferson County.

The blaze had burned several homes southeast of Aspen Park, near Conifer, and driven evacuees from more than 900 homes in the first major fire this season.

The sheriff’s office said late Monday that it was investigating one fatality within the fire zone.

The fire was located between U.S. 285

and South Foxton Road; Pleasant Park Road, Oehlmann Park Road and south to Deer Creek Canyon.

“We have lost some homes now. ... Could be more than five, could be more than 10, could be more than 20; we just don’t know,” said Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

At 9 p.m., there were 100 firefighters from across the region trying to establish a perimeter on the fire, and more personnel were to arrive overnight to assist, Kelley said.

“We are asking people to be ready tonight to leave if need be, even in the middle WIRE » 8A

Denver 285

Map area

N Conifer High School, evacuation shelter

C 470

2 miles

ASPEN PARK CONIFER

Co un

285

ty R oad 88

Approximate area of Lower North Fork Fire JEFFERSON COUNTY Source: Wildlandfire.com

The Denver Post

In an effort to deal with increasing numbers of the homeless on Denver’s streets, the City Council is expected to consider an ordinance that would “ban unauthorized camping” throughout the city.

The bill, which has been in the works for months and is expected to be discussed in a council committee next week, would effectively make illegal any temporary, unauthorized habitation on public and private property throughout Denver.

That means people would be breaking the law by putting up tents or shelters or bedding down in sleeping bags anywhere that camping is unauthorized — meaning on the 16th Street Mall, on sidewalks, in alleys or by the South Platte River.

Word of the proposed ordinance — which already has the support of Denver’s mayor and many in the business community — has sparked the ire of advocates for the homeless, who call it a move to criminalize homelessness.

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless estimates about 300 to 600 people are “camping” like this every night in Denver.

The city long ago outlawed camping in public parks but has no law against unauthorized camping. There is a law that forbids people from “sitting or lying down” in the downtown business district between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. But after 9 p.m., the 16th Street Mall has tended to become a gathering place for the homeless.

Last summer, the mall swelled with about 200 homeless people every night — annoying merchants and tourists. Around the same time, the Occupy Denver protest movement began, launching an ongoing battle with police as protesters began camping in Civic Center and sleeping on sidewalks around the park.

HOMELESS » 7A

H EALTH-CARE L AW

Surveys of metro Denver’s homeless

Tax issue dominates court’s first day

In most years, advocates for the homeless conduct a snapshot-in-time look at homelessness in metro Denver on a particular day, usually in late January. The figures are inexact, but they help chart the course of action for the year.

Here are the findings from recent surveys:

By Michael Doyle and David Lightman McClatchy Newspapers

washington» Supreme Court justices on Monday launched historic arguments over health care with hints that they won’t simply punt the big issues to another day.

While demonstrations and dueling news conferences competed for attention outside, in the courtroom the nine justices bore down on the

initial legal question of whether it’s too soon to sue against the Obama administration’s signature health-care law.

If questions are clues, the answer appears to be that the lawsuits are ripe for action. This, in turn, means the oral arguments that continue today and Wednesday on the law’s constitutional validity will ultimately lead to some crucial decisions later this year.

COURT » 9A

Today’s argument CAN CONGRESS REQUIRE ALL AMERICANS TO HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE? The Obama administration says the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate commerce in the public interest; and the only way to guarantee that health insurance was available was to require that everyone have health insurance. Lawyers for 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business say Congress cannot require everyone to buy a product.

Inside. Colorado Attorney General John Suthers calls the first day of arguments a “preliminary skirmish.” »9A INS I D E Business » 6-8B | Comics » 5-7D | Contact The Post » 2B | Lottery » 2B | Movies » 4D | Obituaries » 5B | Puzzles » 5-6D

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Year 2011 2009 2007 2006 2005 2004

Estimated homeless 11,377 11,061 10,604 9,091 10,268 8,668 Source: Metro Denver Homeless Initiative

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FIRE: Blaze grew quickly in high winds «

FROM 1A

of the night,” Kelley said late Monday.

After crews battled wind gusts of more than 70 mph in the foothills Monday, calmer winds and the chance of a rain shower enter the forecast for the area today.

Several roads in the area remain closed because of flames, smoke and firefighting operations. Residents and others are being encouraged to avoid the area.

Evacuees from the Aspen Park area waited nervously at nearby Conifer High School, which was packed with those who were displaced, and watched TVs and their mobile devices for news Monday night.

“I don’t know how to feel. I feel blank,” said Sandra Browning, with tears in her eyes.

Browning, who lives off Silver Ranch Road, said she was able to save her birds before she had to evacuate but feared others would not be so lucky.

“My neighbors weren’t home yet, so I am worried about their animals,” she said.

Claire Schmidt, who lives off North Trail Circle, was upset that she was unable to retrieve her dog and cat from her home but even more upset by a frantic message she received from a neighbor.

“She sounded very upset and said something about the fire on her property. I am trying desperately to get ahold of them,” Schmidt said.

The fire was first reported about 2 p.m. Monday. By 5 p.m., it was less than 15 acres. Authorities think it started from embers of a controlled burn done by the Colorado State Forest Service last week.

Smoke from the blaze could be seen from downtown Denver, which only complicated a blowing-dust air-quality advisory issued earlier in the day by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The Jefferson County Health Department also warned residents about the possible ill effects of breathing the smoke.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Monday night it would approve funds for 75 percent of the state’s eligible firefighting costs.

Monday night, the agency issued a

Firefighter John Graves, with the North Fork Volunteer Fire Department, watches flames on a ridge near Reynolds Park on Foxton Road. He and his crew were providing structure protection as well as keeping an eye on the fire. The fire, which is being called the Lower North Fork Fire, has burned thousands of acres, and officials said late Monday that an unknown number of homes had been destroyed. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post wildfire-smoke health advisory for southern Jefferson, Douglas, western Arapahoe and western Elbert counties because of moderate to heavy drifting smoke.

“With the added particulates because of the smoke from the fires, we could encourage people with heart and lung disease and older residents to avoid prolonged outside activity when

the visibility is less than 10 miles,” said spokesman Mark Salley.

Morgan Frost of Elizabeth said she came to Conifer High School to get her mother, who lives off Kuehster Road.

“She is OK,” Frost said. “She is 56 and lives alone. She has 35 alpacas and five dogs. All saved.”

Barbara Webster, a mental-health expert with the American Red Cross,

said she had talked to evacuees who were having tremendous difficulty with the situation.

“Some are doing OK and checking on neighbors, but I have spoken to a few who are incredibly upset and scared,” Webster said.

Earlier Monday, crews in Jefferson County fought smaller grass fires near Sawmill Gulch and another off U.S. 40

near Lookout Mountain.

Dry, gusty weather pushed small wildfires across parts of Colorado, including several in the foothills in Jefferson County, as well as fires in Summit, Larimer, Weld and Logan counties.

Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com

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Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2012

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Online: Spring training updates and insight on the Colorado Rockies. »denverpost.com/rockies

A N SC H U TZ C O LLE CTION

Admired Western art to open to public The works to be kept in a historic building may boost the city’s prestige.

By Ray Mark Rinaldi The Denver Post

The Anschutz Collection, one of the country’s most respected collections of Western paintings, will open its doors to the public full time this year, adding another attraction to Denver’s growing portfolio of small, quirky art museums.

Officially known as the American Museum of Western Art, the 26,000square-foot nonprofit is housed in the historic Navarre Building on Tremont Street downtown. For the past 15 months, it has allowed a small number of visitors, by appointment only, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

But by May, the museum plans to open on a regular schedule with admission fees similar to other art museums in the area. There will be about 400 paintings on display, packed into three floors of salons.

The Anschutz Collection is built around the biggest names in Western art, starting in the early part of the 19th century, and includes works by such standard-bearers as Frederic Remington, George Catlin and Charles Marion Russell.

The collection takes a broad view of the genre, featuring works from Hudson River School artists such as Thomas Moran, who ventured west with their easels early on.

It is particularly strong in its hold-

Fury uncontained VICTIMS Elderly couple identified.

One woman missing.

EVACUATIONS 2,500 homes affected; another 6,500 on alert.

TODAY More of same weather; reinforcements on way.

By Jordan Steffen, Kirk Mitchell and Joey Bunch The Denver Post

ART » 13A

NATION & WORLD

SHARP SPLITS ON HEALTH LAW In a historic clash that foreshadows a close electionyear decision, justices revealed sharp splits about whether Congress went too far in mandating that U.S. residents buy health insurance or pay a penalty. »12A

Q and A. Key parts of the health-care-reform argument. »12A

Top: A slurry bomber drops retardant Tuesday on the Lower North Fork fire in Jefferson County. RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Above: Fire crews walk toward a burned-out home. Officials said it can take only minutes for the fire, with temperatures above 1,000 degrees, to flatten a home. Joe Amon, The Denver Post

E M PLOYM E N T M ARK E T

As jobs start to come back, searchers’ skills need work

jefferson county» An earlyspring fire that burned through 4,500 acres and 23 homes and killed an elderly couple continued to rage almost at will across parched foothills late Tuesday, prompting officials to alert thousands more residents to prepare to join neighbors already forced to evacuate their homes.

Officials have identified the two victims of the Lower North Fork fire as Sam Lamar Lucas, 77, and his wife, Linda M. Lucas, 76. Authorities were also searching late Tuesday for a woman who is unaccounted for in the fire area.

Sam Lucas was found outside, and his wife inside, a home deep within the burned area. Fire officials said they didn’t know whether the couple had tried to escape. Their deaths remain under investigation.

Despite the efforts of about 200 firefighters and the benefit of lighter winds, authorities failed to gain much, if any, control over the fast-moving fire Tuesday, said Jacki Kelley, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman. Today, the firefighting team will grow to 400, with crews coming in from across the West.

“We’re finally getting the resources we needed yesterday,” Kelley said.

“We’re going to be fighting this fire 24 hours a day until we get containment.”

Whipped by strong winds and fueled by unusually dry conditions, the fire roared across thousands of foothill acres southwest of Denver south and east of U.S. 285 starting Monday.

FIRE » 11A

By Aldo Svaldi The Denver Post

As Colorado’s job market begins showing signs of life, some recruiters complain that discouraged job hunters have lost the edge required to impress them.

“People need to be more prepared, but they are not,” said Sam Sargent, president of Human Resource Asset Management Systems Ltd. in Monument.

Among the complaints from recruiters are employees who haven’t thoroughly researched the companies they’re interviewing with or who simply lack confidence.

“Even though I’m seeing a huge uptick in the number of jobs JOBS » 7A

INS I D E Business » 7-9B | Comics » 7-9D | Lottery » 2B | Markets » 8B | Movies » 5D | Obituaries » 4-5B | Puzzles » 7-8D

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Ernest Gurule is frustrated by interviews that go well but yield no job offer. AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post

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the denver post B denverpost.com B wednesday, march 28, 2012

NEWS «11A

“We’re waking up to the fact that we might lose our house. We’re not really sure what we’ll do next.”

Tim White, who was forced out of his home Monday evening

«

FROM 1A

The early-spring fire, which has burned through 4,500 acres, has blackened trees and leveled homes. Jordan Steffen, The Denver Post

“On to greener pastures”

Power’s out, and they’re out too

“We all come together”

At Conifer High School, Mark Sustek packed his lawn chair and cooler into the back of his overflowing Ford F-150 pickup Tuesday evening. “On to greener pastures,” he joked. “you can’t go home but you can’t stay here. I just hope I eventually have a home to go back to.”

Cris Nowakoski and his wife put on headlamps and packed a few things from their Pleasant Park area home, after the power went out about 7 p.m. Monday. “It’s a blur,” he said. “I woke up this morning thinking it was a dream.”

Lisa Paris has lived in the King Valley community long enough to have survived the Hayman fire, the Snaking Gulch fire and a few other less-legendary blazes. Back then, she didn’t know many people, so she paid $1,500 a week to board the family dogs. Tuesday, she put out an offer to babysit her neighbors’ kids or dogs, or even provide a couch or spare bed for anyone who needs one this week. “This is the kind of community where nobody ever makes a peep ’til you need it, then we all come together.”

Hayman survivor returns favor Terry Neal, whose home is not in the fire zone, showed up at the The West Jefferson Middle School shelter to offer help. “During Hayman (fire), you would not believe the people who helped me and my family. I said then I’d always help anybody I can. I owe it. If you live up here you either owe it or you will, either your place has burned or it will someday.”

Near-zero visibility Visibility in some areas around the fire was so bad Monday that some fleeing residents drove their vehicles off dirt roads and into ditches because they couldn’t see, said Claire Schmidt, who lives off North Tail Circle and spent Monday night in the shelter. “It’s like in some places one home is there, and the next is gone.”

Safe but on edge Maggie Whalen and her husband, Pete, fled their home off Gold Spur around 7:30 p.m.

Monday with their two dogs, Sirius Black, 12, and Molly, 13. Their two horses were rescued by emergency workers. “The winds have just been crazy. But we got what we needed out of there and that’s what matters.” Sirius Black was a nervous wreck after the evacuation so Whalen was scrambling Tuesday to fill a veterinarian’s prescription for Xanax. “Maybe I’ll take some too.”

Grabbing hold of important stuff Christopher Prado was ordered to evacuate his Pleasant Park home about 8:15 p.m. He grabbed a guitar, some other musical instruments and a birth certificate. It took him about an hour to get ready to leave. He took comfort in knowing that there was still some snow on the ground around his home. “There’s a lot of things that could be lost today. But at the same time, you have to grab hold of the important stuff.”

Compiled by Joey Bunch, Monte Whaley, Karen Augé, Jordan Steffen Denver West Jefferson Middle School evacuation shelter; replaced shelter at Conifer High School

Map area C 470

ASPEN PARK Co unt y Ro CONIFER ad 8 8

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Evacuation area J E FFE R SON C OUN T Y

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Source: Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office The Denver Post

L I A B I L I T Y F O R BL A ZE’S START

State Forest Service blamed, but insurers unlikely to get state to cover fire losses

By Aldo Svaldi The Denver Post

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office placed blame for the Lower North Fork wildfire on a controlled burn last week by the Colorado State Forest Service, saying Monday’s high winds reignited it.

That claim, if proven, could open up the state to litigation from victims of the fire and their insurance providers, who have a legal duty to go after responsible parties for compensation.

“When insurance companies pay out claims, they determine fault,” said Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association. “They will then go back and recoup that money. That happens all the time.”

For example, if an arsonist torches a home, the insurer would pay the claim and then pur-

sue the arsonist for damages, a process called subrogation.

Any money collected would go to cover a victim’s deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses.

If enough is left over, it would also cover the insurance payouts.

But what if the government is behind a fire, as might be the case in the Lower North Fork?

Insurers in theory could still pursue damages, but they would have a hard time overturning protections built into state law, said Jan Spies, an attorney specializing in insurance issues with Spies, Powers & Robinson in Denver.

The Colorado Governmental Immunity Act limits the state’s liability to $150,000 per individual and $600,000 per incident, said Markie Davis, the state’s risk manager.

Immunity protects governments from getting saddled with huge claims that could prevent them from providing services, not to mention

taxpayers who would have to foot the bill.

There are exceptions, and governments can also waive their immunity, although that is rare.

After the Cerro Grande fire near Los Alamos, N.M., destroyed 400 homes in 2000, Congress did step up and agree to pay damages because of problems in how the controlled burn was conducted, Walker said.

“By all indications, the (North Fork) burn was done by the tight standards you do a control burn under,” said Mike Hooker, a spokesman for Colorado State University, which works with the Colorado State Forest Service.

He and a spokesman with the attorney general’s office said it is much too early to assign blame or point fingers.

Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/aldosvaldi

Jefferson County officials said they believe the fire began as a controlled burn set a week ago by the Colorado State Forest Service on land belonging to the Denver Water Board, and that it sprang back to life Monday. However, Joe Duna, deputy state forester, told Channel 4 News that the service is in no way is taking responsibility for having anything to do with the current fire.

“I think it’s fairly unusual for this to happen so long after the fact, and so we’ll wait for the sheriff’s report,” he told the television station.

Tuesday afternoon, authorities alerted residents of an additional 6,500 homes that they should prepare to evacuate, after a spot fire flared 1 mile northwest of Waterton Canyon. About 2,500 homes had already been evacuated by that time.

The most recent areas under pre-evacuation notice include: Dear Creek Mesa, Deer Creek Canyon Park, Homewood Park, Hilldale Pines, South Murphy Gulch Road, Watson Gulch Road, an area southeast of South Turkey Creek Road, White Deer Valley and Jennings Road.

Tuesday afternoon, Jefferson County officials led reporters deep into the backcountry to scenes of Monday’s devastation.

Tree stumps and the charred foundations of what were once homes still smoldered, marked by blackened concrete and molten metal. Flames still shot out of a gas line in one of the destroyed homes. The house numbers on a post near the driveway were melted into the wood.

Dan Hatlestad, public-information officer for the Jefferson County Incident Management Team, said it took only minutes for the fire, with temperatures above 1,000 degrees, to flatten the homes.

Twenty residents had to be pulled out of the area at the last minute by fire crews and emergency vehicles. The smoke was so thick that firefighters had to stick their heads out the windows as they drove in order to see the roadway.

One family became so disoriented that their two vehicles drove off the road, and fire crews had to save them and their pets, Hatlestad said.

David and Jill Owens, whose home was in the heart of the burn area, watched Monday as the smoke plume grew just miles from their driveway. The Owenses, their two young children, three dogs and two cats last saw their home at 5 p.m. Monday.

“It was clear we needed to go,” David Owens said.

When they awoke Tuesday, they saw their home on a local TV newscast. It was, David Owens said, ashes. The only recognizable parts were boulders and concrete from the back patio.

About 25 evacuees spent Monday night at a shelter set up at Conifer High School. Some chose to spend the night in their vehicles in the school’s parking lot to be with their pets.

Julie and Tim White spent an anxious night with their five dogs and three cats. The couple just finished building their home last May and were forced out Monday evening. Animal-rescue workers got into their home and brought their pets to them as they watched smoke billow from afar.

“We’re waking up to the fact that we might lose our house,” Tim White said Tuesday. “We’re not really sure what we’ll do next.”

By Tuesday afternoon, amid fear that the ranks of evacuees had outgrown Conifer High, the evacuation center was moved to West Jefferson Middle School.

The Lower North Fork blaze may be the first in decades to claim the lives of nonfirefighters.

Steve Segin, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, said that since he began working in 1999, he can’t recall a single civilian killed in a wildfire in Colorado, although numerous firefighters have lost their lives. A search of Denver Post records going back to 1982 found no civilian deaths.

“It’s pretty remarkable,” Segin said. “We’ve been fairly lucky.”

The terrain, dry conditions, abundant fuels for fire and winds on Monday were reminiscent of the 2002 Hayman fire, which burned 138,000 acres.

“It’s a combination of problems for us,” said Kelley, the Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for the Lower North Fork fire in Jefferson County, according to Jerry DeFelice, FEMA spokesman.

FEMA funding pays 75 percent of the state’s eligible firefighting costs. The money does not cover damage to homeowners or businesses and does not cover other infrastructure damage caused by the fire.

Staff writers Monte Whaley, Kieran Nicholson and Karen Augé contributed to this report.

View. Photo galleries of the fire and the devastation it has left behind.

Watch. A video of tips on what to do if your animal is still within the evacuation area.

Watch. The rescue of 12 horses. »denverpost.com

DEMS CALL FOR REMOVAL OF GESSLER »denver & the west, 1B

Colorado organic growers to benefit from new rules »5B

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THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012

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Daily Dose Blog: Get health news and insight from reporter Michael Booth. »blogs.denverpost.com/health

NORTHGLENN NATIVE

Starring Army role for newest general Brig. Gen. Laura Richardson will be the Army’s first female deputy division commander.

By Kevin Simpson The Denver Post

She grew up on a straight and narrow path, the eldest of four siblings reared on competition, mental discipline and fitness in a Northglenn home teeming with athletic facilities, motivational slogans and high expectations.

Groomed by success, she gravitated to the military.

And still, when the Army promoted 48-year-old Laura Richardson to brigadier general earlier this month, making her one of only 29 women among 390 general officers, she professed surprise.

“I know a lot of people say you made it through the eye of a needle if you make it through the general-officer ranks,” Richardson said. “I never aspired to be a certain rank at all in my military career.”

Richardson not only has risen to rare heights in rank, but she also soon will become the Army’s first female deputy division commander when she takes over for her husband, Brig. Gen. Jim Richardson, with the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas — one of the branch’s most-powerful and storied units.

L0wer North Fork fire. A family flees the blaze and describes their escape. »denverpost.com/video

People in fire’s way say no warning came

GENERAL » 6A

HEALTH-CARE OVERHAUL

Justices seem open to pulling law’s linchpin

By N.C. Aizenman and Robert Barnes The Washington Post

washington» The Supreme Court closed an extraordinary three-day review of President Barack Obama’s health-care law Wednesday with its conservative majority signaling that it may be on the brink of a major redefinition of the federal government’s power.

Justices on the right of the deeply divided court appear at least open to declaring the heart of the overhaul unconstitutional, voiding the rest of the 2,700-page law and even scrapping the underpinnings of Medicaid, a federalstate partnership that has existed for nearly 50 years.

Much can happen between now and the expected ruling this summer, and a far more moderate tone may emerge.

Broad statements come more easily in the court’s intense oral arguments than in majority opinions.

But Solicitor General Donald Verrilli COURT » 2A

Impact. Obama supporters brace for a major blow to his legacy. »2A

By Kirk Mitchell, Carlos Illescas and Jordan Steffen The Denver Post

F

amilies driven from their homes by a fast-moving wall of fire Monday evening said they stayed longer than was safe because authorities told them that the smoke they were smelling was from a controlled burn that was being monitored.

“I thought we weren’t going to make it,” said Kim Olson, who barely escaped the fire that killed her neighbors, Samuel, 77, and Linda “Moaneti” Lucas, 76. “I thought we were going to die right there.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Colorado State Forest Ser-

vice deputy forester Joe Duda said the Lower North Fork fire that has scorched more than 4,100 acres of land, burned 27 homes and killed the Lucases sparked from a controlled burn on Denver Water Board land last week.

“This is heartbreaking, and we are sorry,” Duda said.

“Despite the best efforts of the Colorado State Forest Service to prevent this very kind of tragic wildfire, we now join Colorado in hoping for the safety of those fighting a large fire and mourning the loss of life and

A resident examines what’s left Wednesday of an American flag still attached to the pole on his property on Kuehster Road. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office allowed some residents to return to their burned homes in the area of the Lower North Fork fire.

Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

FIRE » 11A

MEGA MIL LI O N S $ 5 0 0 M I L L I O N PRI Z E

You won, so how do you handle cash?

By John Seewer The Associated Press

atlanta» The Mega Millions jackpot is now the largest in U.S. lottery history.

Georgia Lottery officials say the jackpot reached $500 million on Wednesday. It has rolled 18 times since Marcia Adams of College Park won $72 million in the Jan. 24 drawing.

A winner could get $19.2 million a year for 26 years or a single payment worth $359 million. The next drawing is Friday at 9 p.m. MDT. Previously, the largest jackpot was $390 million,

won by two players in Georgia and New Jersey in March 2007.

With the half-billion-dollar jackpot up for grabs, plenty of folks are fantasizing about how to spend the money. But doing it the right way — protecting your riches, your identity and your sanity — takes some thought and planning. So, some advice is in order before the Mega Millions drawing Friday, especially if you’re really, really lucky.

INS I D E Business » 5-7B | Comics » 5-7D | Lottery » 2B | Markets » 6B | Movies » 4D | Obituaries » 4B | Puzzles » 5-6D

Q: What do I do with the ticket?

A: Before anything else, sign the back. That will stop anyone else from claiming your riches if you happen to drop it while you’re jumping up and down. Then make a photocopy and lock that in a safe. At the very least, keep it where you know it’s protected. A Rhode Island woman who won a $336 million Powerball jackpot hid the ticket in her Bible before going out to breakfast.

JACKPOT » 7A

8A» NEWS

thursday, march 29, 2012 B denverpost.com B the denver post

6

OD OR A RE D F L AG F OR THE VULNERABLE

The End of an Era

Campfire smell, allergy season “double whammy” to the lungs Doctors are fielding more calls from patients grappling with the smoke.

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One doctor called it a “perfect storm.” Another called it a “double whammy.” But the message was the same: Wildfire smoke and an early spike to allergy season mean trouble for some lung patients.

St. Anthony Hospital, near the Jefferson County foothills, and Denver’s National Jewish Health, a renowned respiratory center, are fielding more calls and visits from patients breathing hard in the haze.

The Lower North Fork fire has cast a campfire-smell pall over the entire metro area, and doctors say that pervasive odor is a sign of trouble for the vulnerable.

That’s not to say lung patients, children or the elderly should panic, medical experts added. Distant smoke rarely causes major problems by itself, but some asthma or chronic pulmonary patients will want to increase or refill medications and look for extra oxygen.

The extremely vulnerable should stay indoors, but National Jewish pediatric chairman Erwin Gelfand does not recommend all asthmatic children avoid sports or other exercise.

“With the allergen load out there, it’s clear it could be the allergens triggering” discomfort, Gelfand said. “Our advice to people is that if it’s really bad and bothering them, it’s good to stay indoors; but kids want to

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Smoke rises Wednesday from the burn area along Kuehster Road in Conifer, where the Lower North Fork fire charred many homes. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post play sports, and you don’t want to curtail that too much.”

Some visitors to St. Anthony’s emergency department have needed extra albuterol — a drug that relaxes and opens air passages — or oxygen, said ED medical director Christopher Ott. If that campfire smell is in the air, there are particles that can be troublesome to a few, Ott said.

It was worse during the notorious 2002 Hayman fire, he add-

ed, with visible pieces of ash falling across metro Denver.

A rush-hour runner along Speer Boulevard would inhale more exhaust particles than a child playing soccer in Littleton amid Lower North Fork fire residue, he added.

Health officials emphasized lung patients should first carefully follow their treatment plans and then contact authorities if something doesn’t feel right.

“A good message to deliver to residents (especially those with chronic respiratory conditions) is to pay attention to your body and how you are feeling,” said Christopher Dann of the state health department’s Air Pollution Control Division. Air-quality and smoke forecasts are at colorado.gov/airquality.

“At best, our monitors can confirm what your body already knows,” Dann said.

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the denver post B denverpost.com B thursday, march 29, 2012

NEWS «9A

DAN G E R O F F IRE PLUMES

Extremely hot, quick blaze poses extra risks An emergency official says the conditions were ripe for flames to suddenly explode.

By Jordan Steffen The Denver Post

conifer» A plume of fire and smoke — reaching up to 1,000 degrees and moving as fast as 40 mph — took about two hours to burn about 4 square miles in Jefferson County on Monday afternoon.

The fast-moving blaze tore through back roads near Conifer and Aspen Park, leaving several residents trapped. By Tuesday morning, two people were dead and a third was missing.

Winds of up to 80 mph, temperatures in the 70s and parched terrain were the perfect combination for the fire plume that burned thousands of acres and sent smoke billowing as high as 10,000 feet in the air, said Dan Hatlestad, spokesman for the Jefferson County Incident Management Team.

The fire most likely sparked about 2 p.m. Monday from embers left behind after a controlled burn last week. Fire crews had been working hot spots related to that fire beginning Thursday. Strong winds Monday afternoon pushed the fire east.

Later that afternoon, temperatures increased and wind gusts hit 80 mph. The winds sent intense radiant heat in front if the flames, which “precooked” the fuels, making them more susceptible to the approaching blaze.

“The flame sheets were 30 to 40 feet wide across Kuehster Road,” Hatlestad said.

Temperatures got so hot that the fire started sucking up oxygen and debris and sending it into the plume. The debris and gases continued to burn in the plume above the blaze.

Plumes can be so intense they create their own weather system, Hatlestad explained.

Plumes are too dangerous to fight. They move erratically and can easily close in on fire crews, Hatlestad said.

“Unfortunately, several residents experienced this Monday,” said Hatlestad, who was one of the firefighters helping get residents to safety.

The plume could travel several miles and reach a resident in minutes. “You would see gray clouds, then black and then flames,” Hatlestad said.

The fire behavior is similar to that seen in the Hayman and FourMile Canyon fires of recent years.

“The fire can creep along and seem like nothing more than a candle and then suddenly explode,” Hatlestad said.

A burned-out horse trailer is all that is left at one house along Kuehster Road. One official said flame sheets along the road were 30 to 40 feet wide. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

Jordan Steffen: jsteffen@denverpost.com, 303-954-1794 or twitter.com/jsteffendp

Lower North Fork fire Containment of blaze estimated at 15 percent

Over 53,000 gallons of retardant dropped

Gov. Hickenlooper to tour fire area today

About 500 firefighters from several states turned their focus Wednesday to building containment lines around the wildfire.

Up to now, the fire’s erratic pattern has forced firefighters to focus on protecting homes, not stopping the burn. Crews had achieved 15 percent containment on the fire by late afternoon. The estimate of the affected area was updated to 4,140 acres. To contain the fire, officials estimate they will need a fire line that is 8½ miles long. Because of weather conditions, only minimal growth along the perimeter is expected today.

Tankers dropped more than 4,100 gallons of retardant on Wednesday and Air National Guard helicopters dropped 49,000 gallons of water. The two heavy air tankers are being transferred to fires in South Dakota,but a single-engine tanker remains here.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper landed at Denver International Airport late Wednesday and said he would visit the fire crews in Jefferson County today. The governor was in Mexico on a trade mission, which ended Wednesday. He canceled plans to stay in Mexico for a brief family vacation. Hickenlooper, who while in Mexico ordered a halt to controlled burns, noted the state’s hot, dry condition and urged the public to “pray for rain.”

27 sites damaged or razed; 267 lack power A total of 27 structures have been damaged or destroyed. The owners of all but one structure have been notified, officials said. Intermountain Rural Electric Association said 267 structures are without power and estimate that it must rebuild 2 to 3 miles of power line.

Crew digs in rubble of missing woman’s home A search team using dogs continued to look for a missing woman.

Her home was among those destroyed. About 60 acres have been searched, and crews were digging in the rubble of the woman’s home Wednesday evening.

Evacuees briefed, told return may take a week Officials briefed about 90 people Wednesday evening at the evacuation center, and residents said it was the most informative session yet. But they were told it could be a week until they could get back into their homes and that upset some.

“We’re tired of it,” said evacuee Amanda Walker.

As for the news that governor has halted all prescribed burns, Walker said, “too little, too late.”

Donations sought to help fire victims The Elk Creek Fire Protection District is joining with the Mountain Resource Center to collect cash donations to assist fire victims.

Please send donation checks to: Mountain Resource Center P.O. Box 425 Conifer, CO 80433 Write, “Lower North Fork Fire Fund” on the memo line of your check. For additional information, contact chaplain Beth Graham of the Elk Creek Fire Protection District at 303-816-9385, ext.

15, or the Mountain Resource Center at 303-838-7552.

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Members of a fire crew put out hotspots Wednesday along Kuehster Road, one of the areas hit the hardest by the Lower North Fork fire near Conifer. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

P R ESC R I BE D BU R NS

Time to say goodbye

Experts defend method Controlled fires widely used, but Hickenlooper issues ban amid review The catastrophic Lower North Fork fire began as a prescribed burn that re-ignited in dry wind and jumped its perimeter, expanding across more than 6 square miles, destroying 27 buildings and killing at least two people.

State forest officials apologized Wednesday, and Gov. John Hickenlooper issued a ban on all prescribed burns on state land until a formal review is done.

But fire authorities insist prescribed fires are required to prevent even worse catastrophes.

The difficulty of fighting super-large fires, such as the 215square-mile Hayman fire in 2002, and tight federal budgets for firefighting as more homes are built in forests stressed by drought and pine beetle infestations have combined to push land managers toward using prescribed fires to manage the risk.

“Doing a lot of small ones gets us closer to avoiding the big one,” said Rich Homann, fire division supervisor for the Colorado State Forest Service.

“It needs to be acknowledged that using fire as a management tool does carry some risk.”

State air-quality officials have issued 225 permits for prescribed fires so far this year.

Last year, they granted 402 permits, up 25 percent from 321 in 2007, state data show. Not all of those permits are used.

Over the past few months, hundreds of burns were done in the forests along Colorado’s Front Range.

Fire managers in Boulder County recently completed 600 burns of cut-down trees. Rocky Mountain National Park crews burned 6,000 piles of beetlekilled trees cut from 700 acres.

Over four years, the federal park crews have treated 1,000 acres using prescribed fires, RMNP fire management officer Mike Lewelling said. “Most of our prescribed fire projects are near communities. Prescribed fires are a proven way to reduce wildfire risk.”

Hickenlooper promised a thorough review of conditions across the state, including protocols used during prescribed burns.

The State Forest Service uses fire to revitalize 15,000 acres of watershed owned by Denver Water.

“All decisions related to forest management and treatment on Denver Water property are made by the Colorado State Forest Service,” utility spokeswoman Stacy Chesney said.

“Our thoughts are with the fam-

ilies that have been evacuated and those who are working hard to manage the fire.”

Forest managers increasingly rely on prescribed fire in part because federal funding for fire suppression has stayed steady — limiting the ability of the Forest Service and other agencies to afford enough air tankers. Tree-thinning to protect communities has emerged as another — also expensive — option.

Prescribed fire is an important tool, said Skip Smith, Forest and Rangeland Stewardship Department head at Colorado State University, which oversees the State Forest Service.

“Either wait for the big one, or burn fuels under moderate conditions where the fire behavior can be controlled,” Smith said. “If we don’t do hazardous fuel mitigation, then, when a wildfire does burn, it burns with more intensity and is more difficult to suppress.”

Prescribed fires rarely escape. But this month’s conditions proved tricky. Land managers say that, a few weeks ago, they saw ideal conditions for prescribed burns — snow leaving soil moist and minimal foliage in trees. Warmer temperatures and high wind over the past two weeks rapidly changed that.

One day last week, 17 private agricultural burns in Boulder County escaped their permitted boundaries, said Jay Stalnacker, the county’s fire management officer, who serves on the Colorado Prescribed Fire Council.

Colorado’s Front Range “is becoming the hotbed for fire,” he said. “The wildland-urban interface. The homes being built in the foothills. The amount of beetle kill. The restoration work that needs to occur. We are set up for disaster.”

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By Bruce Finley The Denver Post

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66

the denver post B denverpost.com B thursday, march 29, 2012

FIRE: Dispatcher said not to worry

NEWS «11A

KIL L ED IN F IR E

«

FROM 1A

property.”

Duda said the controlled burn reignited in heavy winds Monday that fanned embers and blew them into an unburned area outside a containment line established on March 19.

The Lucases, like many of their neighbors, had reported seeing smoke from the burn throughout the weekend but were rebuffed, they said, by dispatchers. Several residents of the Pleasant Park Corridor subdivision, including Olson and her neighbor Dave Massa, said they received no emergency notification calls before the fire swept through the neighborhood.

Jefferson County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said Wednesday that she had heard no reports of residents who registered to receive an emergency notification not getting one.

Olson said she first called 911 about 2 p.m. Monday, around the time Duda said fire crews patrolling the controlled-burn area saw it flare up.

She told a dispatcher that she smelled smoke. She didn’t know where it was coming from but was worried that the controlled burn was out of control. She said the dispatcher told her that there was nothing to worry about.

Olson went outside to look for the source of the smell and saw plumes of smoke rising from the area where the controlled burn had been. She returned to her house and called 911 again. She said a dispatcher told her not to call every time that she smelled smoke.

Three hours later, Olson, her husband, their three kids and the family pets made a dash for their lives.

“I saw flames at the top of the driveway. I was absolutely terrified,” Olson said. “I felt hysterical.”

Olson drove a Jeep ahead of her husband, who took the children in another car. One of her kids videotaped the harrowing passage down the hill. Flames were devouring tall pine trees on both sides of the road.

They had no idea whether the road ahead was cut off by fire because they had received no warning, Olson said.

Sam and Moaneti Lucas were making final preparations to leave their home when they were engulfed by fire, a relative, Mellissa Lucas of Bethlehem, Conn., said Wednesday.

Mellissa Lucas said the fire caught up to them as Moaneti waited in the driveway for Sam, who had gone back into the garage. “We’ll never know why they didn’t get away,” she said.

“It’s such a sad thing to happen.”

Sam may have gone back into the house to turn on a fire-suppression system that would have sprayed foam on the building to protect it, Mellissa Lucas said.

The Lucases had noticed the flames from the controlled burn on Saturday. One neighbor said Sam called 911 that day to say the controlled burn had flared up again.

On Monday afternoon, Sam called his son-in-law to say he and Moaneti were packing their belongings in a pickup truck because they spotted smoke only 2 miles from their home.

Mary Ann Ellis’ home was spared, but she lost her good friends. She found little comfort in the apology offered by Duda.

“It was obvious. A 2-year-old would have known not to start that fire,” Ellis said. “Someone made the wrong decision.”

Ellis was shaking as she described the loss of her friends, the Lucases.

“We ran for our lives, and they just didn’t make it,” Ellis said.

Massa, who lives within a mile of the Lucas home, said he first called 911 about the controlled burn on Thursday afternoon. It appeared out of control and burned through the night, he said. He, too, reported smoke from the burn throughout the weekend.

He also said he did not receive an emergency call to evacuate, although he was

Linda and Samuel Lucas Special to 9News

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Bill Suvada, who has lived on Broken Arrow Drive since 1973, did receive a reverse 911 call. He loaded artwork and American Indian rugs in a pickup truck and drove his parents, Bill and Marge, who are in their 80s, down the mountain as they fretted about their home.

“We got the fear put into us,” Suvada said.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com

Above: Very little is left of a burned swing set at one home along Kuehster Road.

Left: Resident Mary Ann Ellis, left, gets a hug from Denise Gustafson. The two attended a news conference Wednesday at the evacuation center, hoping for some answers from officials. They said they did not lose their homes, but they have not been allowed back to see the extent of the damage.

Photos by Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

Samuel, 77, and Linda “Moaneti” Lucas, 76, spent much of their long marriage chasing his career as a high-level manager at Western Electric across the country. But when it came time to retire, they picked Colorado to really settle in, close to where their son, daughter and five grandchildren live.

They bought property on Eagle Vista Road near Conifer and built their dream house.

There, they had a large garden fenced off from browsing animals.

They raised chickens, and Moaneti was forever devising ways to keep the foxes away from her hens, said family friend Byron Roderick, a music minister at a church the Lucases attended years ago.

Moaneti painted landscapes. She had a beautiful voice and sang for years in church choirs. She was kind to children in the neighborhood, frequently inviting them over to see her hens.

She was an ambitious cook and produced extraordinary meals from their wood-burning stove, Roderick said.

Samuel was a church elder and taught Sunday school classes to adults at their church in Littleton.

He attended to the details of mountain living, cutting and splitting firewood, and waking up in the middle of the night to plow his road during blizzards, just to make sure the snow didn’t get too deep.

They vacationed infrequently, preferring instead to enjoy their beautiful home.

“It was just their dream house in the mountains,” Roderick said.

Kirk Mitchell, The Denver Post

WOMEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT IN DENVER

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Final Four games Sunday; national championship Tuesday

UNBEATABLE BEARS?

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Baylor is two victories from a 40-0 season. Stopping the Bears will be a tall task indeed, but there are several factors to consider. » sports, 1C

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66

Online: Learn more about Colorado and Denver history at The Archive blog. »blogs.denverpost.com/library

Some evacuation calls failed Warnings went out near Broomfield and in Texas but missed some near the fire.

Ballot may give bill on foreclosure 2nd chance

By Kirk Mitchell and Jordan Steffen The Denver Post

Legislation requiring note assignments to be filed with the county was killed in a GOP-controlled committee.

By David Migoya The Denver Post

Undaunted that legislators killed a bill requiring that lenders prove their right to foreclose on a home, backers of the failed proposal have filed it as a ballot initiative with a harder approach: Foreclosures can’t happen unless all loan papers are properly recorded with the county first.

That means anytime a lender sells or transfers a note, as has been the practice for several years in the mortgage-backed securities business, the holder must file it with the county recorder of deeds.

Colorado has not required assignments — the legal word for when a mortgage or note exchanges hands — to be recorded for years, a critical part of the problem in determining who actually owns a note during a foreclosure, proponents of the initiative say.

“The intent is to ensure there are no gaps in the line of title,” attorney Stephen Brunette said. “Title records now are being totally messed with. Colorado’s foreclosure process today is fundamentally unsound.”

The ballot initiative — called the Foreclosure Due Process and Fraud Prevention Initiative — squarely takes on Colorado law that uniquely allows for “no-doc” foreclosures, where lenders can take a home without ever having to prove they have that right.

“In other states, courts are scrutinizing whether the foreclosing party has the right to foreclose and concluding that in most cases (they haven’t) demonstrated that right with proper documentation,” said FORECLOSURE » 13A

Shannon Zimmerman of Westminster holds autistic son Logan, 8. The CDC found 1 in 85 Arapahoe County 8-yearolds had autism in 2008, or 11.8 cases per 1,000 kids — a 60 percent jump in two years. Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post

Colo. autism sample higher than nation’s

By Michael Booth The Denver Post

FIRE » 13A

Autism disorders grow

A Colorado test county has seen a 60 percent spike in diagnosed autism over two years, far higher than an already-worrisome surge in national rates for the disorder, the CDC and state health officials said Thursday.

The Colorado segment of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national monitoring project found 1 in 85 Arapahoe County 8year-olds had some level of autism in 2008, or 11.8 cases per 1,000 kids.

That was a 60 percent jump from the last comparable study in 2006.

The boost in Arapahoe County numbers was higher than the 23

Emergency notification calls warning residents of a deadly wildfire near Conifer were received as far away as Amarillo, Texas, and across Jefferson County, setting off a flood of calls that clogged lines to emergency dispatchers.

Meanwhile, authorities are investigating why 12 percent of targeted phones closest to the Lower North Fork fire did not receive the mandatory evacuation notifications, Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink said Thursday afternoon.

“We’re scratching our heads trying to get to the bottom of it,” Mink said.

Matt Teague, president of FirstCall Network, which installed the emergency notification network last year, said nothing went wrong and that 88 percent notification is a great rate.

“The system worked exactly as it was supposed to,” Teague said, adding that a small percentage of people weren’t notified because they didn’t answer three phone calls — probably because they had already evacuated.

percent national increase in childhood autism cases. The CDC’s national composite shows 1 out of 88 children with an “autism spectrum disorder,” across monitoring areas in 14 states.

Nationally, the rate has increased 68.7 percent over eight years of study.

AUTISM » 10A

The prevalence of identified autism spectrum disorders grew nationally 68.7 percent from 2000 to 2008.

12 10 8

11.3

A fire crew puts out hot spots along Kuehster Road, where most of the homes were lost. Helen H. Richardson,

rate per 1,000 u.s. children

The Denver Post

6.7

6 4 2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Denver Post

Back home. Most evacuees, including the four-legged kind, are allowed to return home. »fire coverage: 1B, 4B

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PAIR GET READY FOR THEIR GREAT ESCAPE

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The ski season has become a casualty of a dry winter, with early closures announced by Monarch Mountain and Ski Cooper. »5B

Lottery fever spreads in Colorado as the jackpot in today’s national Mega Millions drawing tops $500 million. Residents of Wyoming and Utah — which don’t partake — flocked across state lines to play. »1B Karissa Sanchez, 1, rests as she and her dad wait more than three hours to buy tickets in California. Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images

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6

the denver post B denverpost.com B friday, march 30, 2012

dp

NEWS «13A

Online. More images, video and coverage of the Lower North Fork fire. »denverpost.com

FIRE: Backup plan set

in case of new trouble « FROM 1A

But authorities are not convinced that is the case and have set up a backup plan in case more evacuations are necessary in the coming days when temperatures are supposed to soar into the 80s and brisk winds are forecast.

The Sheriff’s Office will send emergency vehicles to evacuation areas to warn people to leave their homes immediately in case of a new fire threat, said Jacki Kelley, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. When people hear sirens, it’s a signal to leave immediately, not in 30 minutes, Kelley said.

“We hate that this happened,” she said Thursday. “I really hope that we have some answers tomorrow.”

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, followed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, walks past a conveyor carrying cuts of beef destined to become finely textured lean beef Thursday at a Beef Products plant in South Sioux City, Neb. Nati Harnik, The Associated Press

Governors promote “pink slime” safety They say beef gets a bad rap

By Kristi Eaton The Associated Press

south sioux city, neb.»

Governors of three states got up close with “pink slime” Thursday, touching and examining treated beef at a plant and eating hamburgers made with it in a bid to convince consumers and grocery stores the product is safe to consume.

The three governors and two lieutenant governors spent about a half-hour learning about the process of creating finely textured lean beef in a tour of the main plant that makes the product, then blasted the media

for scaring consumers with a moniker coined by critics.

“If you called it finely textured lean beef, would we be here?” asked Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. Other leaders echoed his comments as they tried to smooth over consumer concerns about the product.

Beef Products, the main producer of the cheap lean beef made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts, has drawn scrutiny over concerns about the ammonium hydroxide it treats the meat with to change the beef’s acidity and kill bacteria. The company suspended operations at plants in Texas, Kansas and Iowa this week, affecting 650 jobs, but defends its product as safe.

The politicians who toured

the plant — Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Brownback, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy and South Dakota Lt. Gov. Matt Michels— all agree with the industry view that the beef has been unfairly maligned and mislabeled.

“Why are we here today defending a company that has a rather sterling record dealing with making a food product that is very much needed in this country in a very safe manner? Why are we here today?” Perry said.

The officials spent about 20 minutes going over the production process with Craig Letch, the company’s director of quality assurance, viewing and handling more than a dozen slabs of raw meat and the

Dispatchers distracted Mink said investigators are trying to determine why warnings were sent to homes as far north as the Broomfield County line and as distant as Texas, triggering a flood of distracting calls from residents concerned about a blaze that was nowhere near their homes.

Dispatchers were bogged down explaining where the fire actually was to people who weren’t in danger when they needed to be communicating with rescuers and people in trouble.

“We don’t have a clue how many (notifications) went to the wrong people,” Mink said.

Several people said they received notifications of a fire even though they were nowhere near the fire.

Sandra Nance, 65, who lives in Wheat Ridge, said she received a text message on her cellphone and an e-mail warning about a wildfire just after 5 p.m. Monday. She called Wheat Ridge police and asked whether a fire was burning in nearby open space and was told it was likely a mistake.

“It’s criminal,” Nance said.

“It’s gross negligence. They really need to get their computer system squared away.”

Jeff Irvin, executive director of the Jefferson County Emergency Communications Authority, said it is possible that the first wave of notifications mistakenly went to all Jefferson

processed, finished product laid out on cutting boards on a round wooden table.

The officials asked about the added ammonia, which Letch said is used as an extra safety precaution against E. coli.

“What we’re doing with ammonium hydroxide is directly targeting those specific microorganisms that could affect human health. It is nothing more than something to ensure consumer safety,” Letch said.

The officials donned hard hats, hair nets and goggles for a walking tour through the facility. Afterward, Perry, Branstad and others ate burgers made from the plant’s meat.

“It’s lean. It’s good. It’s nutritious,” Branstad said as he polished off a patty, sans bun.

FORECLOSURE: Initiative resembles new Nevada law Debra Fortenberry, a Colorado Springs attorney who helped draft the initiative with Brunette and the Colorado Progressive Coalition.

“In Colorado, there is nothing to scrutinize,” she said.

No other state allows for a foreclosure without the lender first proving it is the right entity to do so. Colorado allows foreclosure lawyers to sign a “statement of qualified holder,” which basically says they think their client owns the note or mortgage without ever actually seeing it — a practice some states have labeled as “robo-signing.”

Colorado law allows a foreclosure to continue even if the lawyer gets it wrong — and doesn’t hold anyone accountable for the mistake. It’s a crime in Nevada, one of the states to use deeds of trust like Colorado.

Initiative hearing set Opponents of House Bill 1156 who helped kill it in a Republican-controlled committee March 13 said the initiative could push lenders from the market.

“Our one concern is that nothing hurt lending in Colorado,” said Don Childears, president of the Colorado Bankers Association. “We’re not jumping to a conclusion that it’s automatically bad and have organizations against it tomorrow. But we’re aggressively thinking through its impact.”

HB 1156 sought to have lenders provide proof — theoretically a certified copy of a mortgage or loan note — that they had the right to foreclose on a property. It also would have required a judge to review the paperwork and certify a lender’s standing before ordering the public auction of a foreclosed home.

The proposed initiative is scheduled for a hearing at the Legislative Council on April 6, the first step to reaching November’s ballot. The proposal would need more than 87,100 validated signatures to get on the ballot, according to the Colorado secretary of state’s office.

“Foreclosure is the only civil proceeding in Colorado where

Ballot proposal This is the text of the foreclosure initiative filed with the Colorado secretary of state’s office. Once a legislative measure, the plan was killed in committee:

Associated Press file

dp Online: Get the latest

on the housing market and check out our real estate tools. »denverpost.com/realestate

no disclosures are required,” Brunette said. “Even in smallclaims court, you have to produce the evidence so you can sue, but to take a home, they don’t have to produce a thing.”

Tracking ownership Mortgages were bought and sold so often in what became toxic mortgage-backed securities that it became difficult — and costly — to file each of the resulting transfers with a county.

Colorado does not require every ownership transfer of a mortgage to be recorded, but other states do.

Thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure — even those who simply wanted to refinance as interest rates tumbled — have recounted experiences of simply trying to determine who owned their mortgage.

The initiative nearly replicates a similar law recently passed in Nevada, which requires that all mortgage loan documents and their transfers be recorded. If not, the lender is not allowed to foreclose.

“If lenders have their stuff in a row, all their documents properly filed like they used to do it, there will absolutely be no problem,” Brunette said.

“This solves the problems.”

David Migoya: 303-954-1506, dmigoya@denverpost.com, twitter.com/DavidMigoya

No person shall be deprived of real property through a foreclosure unless the party claiming the right to foreclose files in the foreclosure proceeding competent evidence of its right to enforce a valid security interest, recorded before the foreclosure is commenced, with the clerk and recorder of the county in which the real property is located, in accord with Article XIV, Section 8 of this Constitution. Competent evidence shall include (1) the evidence of debt; (2) endorsements, assignments, or transfers, if any, of the evidence of debt to the foreclosing party; and (3) duly recorded assignments, if any, of the recorded security interest to the foreclosing party. Any statutes inconsistent with this Article II, Section 25(a) are repealed on the effective date of this Section.

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Several of the Lucases’ neighbors, including Kim Olson, said they did not receive a warning call despite calling dispatch for several hours about smelling and seeing smoke. Olson said she heard her phone ringing as she was fleeing her house.

Olson had reported that a controlled burn near her home seemed to have reignited but said dispatchers told her not to keep calling every time she smelled smoke and that she was not in jeopardy. Ultimately Olson, her husband and three children escaped as flames were burning on either side of their road.

Kelley said that early on, dispatchers did tell residents they were smelling a controlled burn, but when they learned that it was out of control, they told them it was a 5-acre fire out of control.

Mink said investigators will eventually review every emergency call made Monday to determine whether dispatchers acted appropriately. But for the time being, the department’s first priority is putting out the fire, he said.

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and Broomfield county residents who signed up online for e-mail and text-message notifications. It’s unclear how that happened, he said.

The communications authority manages emergency phones for Jefferson and Broomfield counties, as well as municipalities and fire-protection districts within their boundaries.

Kelley said people don’t have to wait until they are contacted by authorities about a fire if they don’t feel safe. They can evacuate at any time, she said.

People should take responsibility for their own safety, she said.

Kelley said Samuel Lucas, 77, and his wife, Linda, 76, who died within the fire zone Monday, did receive an automated call. Neighbors have said, however, that the Lucases told them they did not receive a call.

Kelley did not know whether Ann Appel, who is still missing in the burn zone, received a call.

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Dems “He’s happy to be home” weigh Gessler options LOWER NORTH FORK FIRE

Efforts to recall, impeach or restrain the secretary of state are longshots, analysts say.

By Sara Burnett The Denver Post

Patrick Bentley unloads a painted horse named Hank at the Aspen Creek Veterinary Hospital after an evacuation order was lifted in Jefferson County on Thursday afternoon. Bentley indicates the direction of the fire that on Monday forced the owners of the clinic to evacuate nine horses from the premises. About 180 homes remained evacuated Thursday because of the Lower North Fork fire, and about 6,500 homes are on standby in case of a second evacuation. Karl Gehring, The Denver Post

Evacuation zone opened to residents, while teams hunt for missing woman

By Jordan Steffen The Denver Post

Patrick Bentley smiled and cooed at Hank, an anxious painted horse, as he led him off the trailer.

“Easy, you’re all right,” Bentley said to Hank as the horse nudged his snout into Bentley’s neck.

“He’s happy to be home.”

Hank was one of nine horses who returned to the Aspen Creek Veterinary Hospital on Thursday after officials opened several roads and allowed many evacuees of the Lower North Fork fire to go home. But like all residents allowed home, Bentley and Hank were told to remain on standby and be prepared for a second evacuation.

“That’s a significant number of people that get to go home,” said Jacki Kelley, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. “They need to be ready to go again.”

Because an initial investigation revealed that a glitch in the emergency notification system prevented 12 percent of targeted phones from receiv-

ing a call, Kelley said a patrol car will drive through the area with its lights and sirens blaring if a second evacuation is necessary.

“You don’t have 30 minutes (if you hear the sirens),” she said. “You need to leave now.”

Residents who returned to their homes were urged to pack their belongings and keep them in their vehicles or close to the door.

Search teams continued to expand efforts to find a missing woman, who was identified Thursday as 51-year-old Ann Appel. The Urban Search and Rescue team and its dogs covered about 220 acres Thursday with no sign of Appel.

“We are urgently searching for Ann and appreciate your prayers for her safety,” Appel’s family said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful for all of those helping in the search.”

Officials also continue to investigate the deaths of Samuel Lucas, 77, and his wife, Linda, 76, who died at their home, which was destroyed.

Denver 285

Map area

N

GESSLER » 4B C 470

Online. Additional Denver Post coverage

Conifer High School West Jefferson Middle School

CONIFER 285

ASPEN PARK Evacuation area ty R oad 88

Lower North Fork fire area 2 miles

J E FFE R SON C OUNT Y Source: Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office The Denver Post

Video. Four Colorado Army National Guard helicopters had

Slide shows. See additional Denver Post staff and reader

dumped roughly 55,000 gallons of water on the wildfire as of Thursday morning. »denverpost.com/mediacenter

photos. »denverpost.com/mediacenter Updates. Get the latest news on the fire. »denverpost.com

Lottery fever lures dreamers in nearby states

er-paid ones.

The move aimed to cut $20.3 million, which Democrats agreed to in exchange for a budget increase of $15.9 million for state workers’ higher health costs. The net savings, therefore, was $4.4 million.

However, state agencies said that after multiple years of such cuts, they could no longer absorb them and would be forced to lay off as many as 500 workers. Republicans on the Joint Budget Committee said they did not believe

Trevor Ritchhart made the drive south from Cheyenne to Wellington on Thursday afternoon with one thought in mind: becoming the Cowboy State’s newest mega-millionaire.

Like others from Wyoming — where Mega Millions lottery tickets cannot be bought — Ritchhart just couldn’t resist. At the Loaf ‘N Jug across the state line in Wellington, Ritchhart placed $20 on the counter for Mega Millions tickets, putting his overall tab for lottery tickets this month at 100 bucks.

And why not? As of Thursday afternoon, the Mega Millions jackpot had grown to a whopping $540 million.

“I have as good of a chance as anyone else,” Ritchhart said.

He has big plans if he does win.

“Myself and my family will be set,” he said.

“Can’t wait to buy a nice house, donate to charity, all kinds of things.”

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Budget-writing state lawmakers broke through a partisan impasse Thursday when they settled on a smaller cut for state agencies that could avoid many layoffs.

“Score!” a jubilant Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen and chairwoman of the Joint Budget Committee, exclaimed after the stalemate was

finally ended after multiple attempts.

Democrats and Republicans on the evenly split six-member committee had deadlocked over the issue of whether to reverse a 2 percent across-the-board cut to state agencies’ payrolls that the panel had approved earlier this year.

The cut was intended to come in the form of “vacancy savings,” which occur when higherpaid employees leave and are replaced by low-

M EG A M IL L IO N S AT HA L F - B IL L IO N

By Carlos Illescas The Denver Post

State budget panel breaks partisan impasse

By Tim Hoover The Denver Post

of a possible attempt to remove Secretary of State Scott Gessler. »denverpost.com/extras

Co un

FIRE » 4B

After days of haggling, lawmakers approve a smaller cut for agencies than one the committee had OK’d earlier this year and that could save many jobs.

As the Colorado Democratic Party spent Thursday vetting potential ways to remove Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler from office, political observers characterized the effort as everything from “off-the-wall” to a political ploy and — perhaps most important — a longshot.

“If the Democrats want Mr. Gessler out of office, my advice is to get to work recruiting a strong candidate to run against him (in 2014), raise money … and turn (Gessler) out of office in what is the most legitimate way possible in a democracy,” said Bob Loevy, a Republican and a political science professor at Colorado College.

“Any other option is bizarre, off-the-wall and unlikely to succeed,” he said.

State Democratic Party chairman Rick Palacio on Wednesday called on voters to “consider all avenues necessary” to remove Gessler from office, saying he has put his political agenda above Coloradans’ right to vote.

The statement came hours after the secretary of state testified against a bipartisan bill that would have ensured more than 300,000 inactive

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4B» DENVER & THE WEST

friday, march 30, 2012 B denverpost.com B the denver post

66

GESSLER:

Dems say vote rights at stake

«

FROM 1B

voters receive a mail ballot for the November election.

Gessler said the bill would cause “massive confusion” months before a presidential election, and he disputed supporters’ arguments it would cut costs. A Republican-controlled House committee then killed the bill.

Palacio’s statement was issued hours later. On Thursday, party officials were fielding calls and deep in conversation about their options, spokesman Matt Inzeo said.

Among them, experts said, are recall, impeachment by state legislators and a constitutional amendment to take away some of Gessler’s authority.

But all of those options are expensive, take time and would be difficult to accomplish absent some kind of scandal or behavior bordering on the criminal.

“It might come off looking like a partisan witch hunt,” said Ken Bickers, professor and chairman of the political science department at the University of Colorado.

John Straayer, a political science professor at Colorado State University, agreed a recall isn’t likely to happen.

But he said it’s “not a losing strategy” for Democrats.

“It highlights the point that he’s on the march with a huge number of matters that are highly controversial, not just with Democrats but among his own party,” Straayer said.

Bickers speculated Democrats may have an ulterior motive: creating “a storyline” to appeal to a particular group of voters. Most likely that’s Latinos, who are among those voters Democrats say will be disproportionately affected by Gessler’s efforts, and a voting bloc that will be key to President Barack Obama winning re-election this fall.

“To me it’s a sign that they think they have a weakness in the presidential election,” Bickers said.

But Inzeo insisted the dust-up is about voters’ fundamental right to cast a ballot.

“It isn’t just about the Democratic Party,” he said.

“It’s about people concerned about the direction this election could be headed if we have a secretary of state who feels he can manipulate the rules.”

Meanwhile, Gessler’s office issued a news release trumpeting three other election-related bills that have received strong bipartisan support — a less-than-subtle reminder that his office is capable of building coalitions from both sides of the aisle.

“While (Democrats) are illustrating a willingness to throw temper tantrums, we’re going to stay policyfocused and continue to work with legislators to find good policy going forward,” said Rich Coolidge, public information officer for the secretary of state.

Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661 or sburnett@denverpost.com

A hand crew from the Mountain View Fire District puts water on hot spots along Kuehster Road, where most of the homes were lost. There was no growth in the 4,140-acre Lower North Fork fire Thursday, but crews are nervous that high winds forecast for the weekend might flare the flames. The forecast calls for gusts of 20 mph and 30 to 40 mph at higher elevations. Photos by Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

Winds this weekend make crews anxious

By Joey Bunch The Denver Post

jefferson county» Hundreds of elite firefighters from across the West will be climbing the steep ridges and scaling the deep ravines of Jefferson County today in a race to get ahead of high weekend winds that could cause the Lower North Fork fire to flare.

“We have a two-day window of weather fairly favorable for us to make hay,” incident commander Rich Harvey said Thursday afternoon.

There was no growth in the 4,140acre fire Thursday, and containment grew from 15 percent to 45 percent, as crews cut 3.5 miles of containment lines into the rugged terrain.

They will hit it full force today, Harvey said.

Of the 900 homes evacuated, most were allowed home Thursday, except for 180 homes in the Kuehster, Critchell and Maxwell Hill neighborhoods.

There are 6,500 residences on notice of another possible evacuation if the fire rekindles.

There is no estimate on when the fire will be contained and when the final evacuation orders will be lifted.

The prospect of high winds returning to the foothills this weekend had firefighters and residents nervous.

The forecast calls for 20-mph wind gusts, and 30 to 40 mph at higher elevations. Temperatures will be near record highs.

“God help us if we have another one like Monday,” said Martin Strachan, who was filling his Jeep with gas Thursday in Conifer, a few miles north of the fire, which erupted from a controlled burn in 70-mph gusts.

“I thought my house was going to blow down,” Strachan said. “If that fire comes roaring north, then that’s it.”

Of the 27 homes that were destroyed or damaged, about 21 homeowners and others who had damage were escorted to their property by sheriff’s deputies Thursday.

Some crew members were dispatched from the Lower North Fork

Gov. John Hickenlooper prepares Thursday to board a Colorado Army National Guard helicopter to get an aerial view of damage from the Lower North Fork fire. He also spoke with evacuees and residents who lost their homes. The fire was 45 percent contained Thursday. fire Thursday afternoon to help put out the 7-acre West Creek fire in an area of the Pike and San Isabel National Forest north of Woodland Park that was burned by the Hayman fire in 1992.

Harvey said it had no effect on the fire fight in Jefferson County.

“We remain focused on our primary mission,” he said.

Because of an unusually dry March, low humidity and high winds, the foothills and high country are poised to burn with dead, dry foliage and dead trees.

Gov. John Hickenlooper on Wednesday suspended prescribed burns by the state. Jefferson and Boulder counties and Denver Mountain Parks instituted bans on campfires and most other outdoor burning Tuesday.

Other counties, including Gilpin and Eagle, implemented bans Thursday.

Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com

How to help

The Mountain Resource Center, a local community center in Conifer at 11030 Kitty Drive, has agreed to accept the following items 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday: Gift cards in small denominations of $15 to $25 (Target, Walmart, local grocery stores and gas stations).

Pantry food items that are nonperishable.

Seasonal new or nearly new clothing, folded and put in boxes.

Those wishing to donate furniture or appliances are asked to contact the center directly at 303-838-7552 or e-mail info@mrcco.org.

Checks may be mailed to Mountain Resource Center, P.O. Box 425 Conifer, CO 80433 Financial donations can be given at mrcco.org as well.

FIRE: Memorial

service today for couple who died in home

«

FROM 1B

The Lucas family issued a statement late Thursday, saying, “We are continuing to process the passing of our beloved parents and grandparents. While nothing can replace the loss, we as a family are focusing on celebrating their lives.

“They are continually loved and will be forever missed.”

There will be a memorial service for the Lucases at 1 p.m. today at Southern Gables Church at 4001 S. Wadsworth Blvd. in Jefferson County.

About noon Thursday, as fire crews continued working to contain the fire and extinguish spot fires, officials opened the back roads for the evacuees who were allowed to return to the area near Conifer and Aspen Park. But 180 homes remained evacuated and 6,500 homes are still on standby, Kelley said.

There is no estimate for when the remaining residents will be allowed to return.

The residents of those homes that were damaged or destroyed were escorted to their homes and given about 30 minutes to go through their belongings, said Dan Hatlestad, spokesman for the Jefferson County Incident Management Team.

“In most cases there was little to collect,” Hatlestad said.

The 4,140-acre fire exploded to life Monday after embers from a prescribed burn preformed last week by the Colorado State Forest Service reignited in strong winds.

On Monday, Bentley helped load the animals onto trailers as a plume of smoke built and crept over the ridge. The animals were taken to a friend’s ranch.

“It looked like a bomb went off,” Bentley said.

On Thursday, a flood of returning vehicles and trailers filled the narrow roads as Bentley made several trips to bring back the horses.

“It was trailer after trailer,” Bentley said. “These roads looked like I-25 during rush hour.”

Staff writer Joey Bunch contributed to this report.

BUDGET: Boulder representative cites sacrifices made by state workers for years

«

FROM 1B

such dire consequences would occur even after GOP officeholders Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Treasurer Walker Stapleton and Attorney General John Suthers opposed the cuts.

When state revenues improved considerably this month, the Joint Budget Committee began restoring state spending for a senior property-tax break and for K-12 and higher education. But Democrats also wanted to restore the payroll cuts for state agencies, saying there was now no need to impose them.

Republicans fought that, and the committee locked up on 3-3 votes at multiple times this week. Finally on Thursday, Rep. Jon Becker, R-Fort Morgan, offered a solution everyone could live with.

Becker proposed making the cut only a 1 percent vacancy-savings cut, and with only a 0.5 percent cut to judicial agencies, in which lawmakers had decided salaries were perilously low and in which many salaries, such as those of judges, can’t be touched by law. Becker also proposed exempting agencies with 20 or fewer employees, where it is difficult to enact cuts with-

out losing workers.

His plan also exempts corrections workers, state troopers and workers at round-the-clock facilities such as mental-health institutions, youth correctional facilities and centers for the severely developmentally disabled.

Becker’s compromise was accepted 6-0 after various permutations were rejected on 3-3 votes and after Democrats refused to back down on the issue of bearing the costs of health insurance increases for state workers.

Gerou made it clear she would not budge on cutting state payroll. She pointed to job losses in the construc-

tion industry and said state workers were better off in comparison.

“They have not had to bear the brunt of the recession that a lot who don’t work in state government have,” Gerou said.

But Democrats on the panel, such as Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, said that wasn’t true. State workers have not had raises in four years, they took furloughs in one year, their payments to their retirement plan increased and they have had to continually absorb health insurance increases, Levy said.

Still, Colorado WINS, the union that represents many state workers, said

the compromise agreed upon Thursday was “reasonable.”

“Our understanding from the governor’s office is that this agreement will mitigate any job loss,” said Scott Wasserman, the union’s executive director.

“We are especially relieved that the 24/7 and public safety divisions will be held harmless.

“These are the divisions that have been hardest-hit by the revenue crisis and where staffing is truly a life-ordeath issue.”

Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com

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Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire

SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2012

dp

record highs E84° F50° »10B B © the denver post B $1.00 price may vary outside metro denver

6

Online today: Updates on progress against the Lower North Fork fire. »denverpost.com/breakingnews

2012 WILDFIRE OUTLOOK

State off to combustible start The driest March on record leaves the Front Range a giant red zone that’s quick to ignite.

PUTTING ON A SPIN

By Electa Draper The Denver Post

The stingy skies and water-stealing winds of March have land managers worried the state will burn up before it greens up.

Most springtimes, state and national forest crews take advantage of the cooler weather and wetter conditions to do prescribed burns — working to clear brush and reduce fire risk.

But the state stopped those burns after one reignited and became the deadly Lower North Fork fire, and the federal foresters announced their own ban Friday, citing the dangerous conditions and the need to divert crews to battle blazes.

The last week of March looked more like midsummer, as hundreds of firefighters worked the lines in Jefferson County and air tankers flew overhead, making multiple drops. Counties all along the Front Range and into the mountains issued burning bans.

Everything points to a long fire season in Colorado.

“Conditions are really bad,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Steve Segin said. “Conditions might improve. If they don’t, we’re in for a long haul.”

FIRE » 16A

dp Online: Images, video and

coverage of the Lower North Fork fire. »denverpost.com

A

ustin Ebert, 8, of Commerce City gets a lesson in spinning basketballs while visiting the NCAA Tourney Town on Friday at the Colorado Convention Center. Tourney Town is free and open to the public through Sunday. It offers music, autographs, basketball clinics, exhibits, games, a pep rally and a mascot competition. It runs in conjunction with the NCAA Women’s Final Four in Denver, where approximately 30,000 fans are expected. »story, 4B Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post Follow the play: Women prepare for Sunday’s showdown, while NCAA’s men battle today in New Orleans. Sports, 1C; DENVERPOST.COM

P R IVATIZ ATIO N P U S H

Millions spent, but no victory for Pinnacol

By Tim Hoover The Denver Post

NATION & WORLD

DENVER & THE WEST

EX-CONVICTS ORDERED DEPORTED MAY BE FREED

MOTHER OF MISSING INFANT ARRESTED

The slayings of five people in San Francisco earlier this month have shed a harsh light on the practice of freeing excon illegal immigrants in the U.S. because their homelands won’t take them back. »6A

Commerce City police are searching for the boy, but he’s presumed dead. »1B

GAS SUPPLIES IN BRITAIN DRAINED BY STOCKPILING The British government’s advice to stock up on gas ahead of a threatened strike by British fuel-tanker drivers has prompted a wave of panic-buying nationwide. »14A

BOARD BLAMES MEEKER SCHOOL ENGINEER Fire victims mourned: Sam and Linda “Moaneti” Lucas are remembered Friday by friends and family who filled Southern Gables Church in Jefferson County. »1B

A state board alleges violation of state rules and substandard work. »1B

COMING SUNDAY Truth too late: False allegations of

Business owners and lawmakers were livid Friday after learning of the multimillion-dollar amounts Pinnacol Assurance, the state-chartered workers’ compensation insurance fund, has spent on efforts to privatize itself.

In response to an open-records request from a group of employers and workers’ compensation attorneys, the quasi-governmental agency revealed that it had spent $1.6 million since January on lobbying, advertising and public relations services in the push to privatize itself.

The expenses were first reported in the Denver Business Journal, which also reported additional expenses since September for legal, financial and consulting services that brought the total to $3.5 million.

child abuse lead to a murder-suicide.

PINNACOL » 15A

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saturday, march 31, 2012 B denverpost.com B the denver post

6

FIRE: Nearly

all of state notably dry « FROM 1A

It is the Front Range’s driest March in 124 years of records, Colorado Climate Center researcher Wendy Ryan said. There was no measurable precipitation in the metro area.

You have to go back to 1966 for a comparably miserly March in Denver, yet even that one produced 0.01 of an inch of water.

It looks as if this will be the secondwarmest March on record for Denver, surpassed only by 1910. Daytime highs in Denver were 9 degrees higher than the March average. Nighttime lows were 6 degrees higher.

“If it weren’t for the early fires, we’d call this a nice spring,” state climatologist Nolan Doesken said.

“People are loving the warm weather. It’s more like May. But there’s this nagging discomfort watching the mountain snowpack go so early. You’re enjoying the sunshine but knowing it’s not quite right.”

The snowpack is at 60 percent of normal statewide. Almost the entire state is either “abnormally dry” or in a short-term “moderate drought,” according to the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center. The state’s southeastern corner is experiencing severe drought.

The Lower North Fork fire, which has claimed two lives, was continuing to burn actively Friday, with a total of more than 4,000 acres scorched. Firefighters expect to have it contained by Sunday if they outmaneuver high winds predicted this weekend.

More counties are banning open fires by the hour.

“I’m going camping this weekend, and I am not lighting a fire,” Ryan said.

“Too dangerous.”

The Climate Prediction Center indicates the 30-day outlook is for April to be warmer and drier than normal.

“We do get years like this — dry springs,” said Skip Smith, head of Colorado State University’s forest and rangeland stewardship department.

“One good storm could turn things around.”

The foundation is all that is left of this home along Kuehster Road, where many homes were lost to the Lower North Fork fire this week. The blaze, which roared up Monday evening, was still burning Friday, and firefighters hope to have it all under control this weekend, although high winds are forecast. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post Things could be worse. Last year’s snowpack was good, so storage in state reservoirs is helping.

And February was one of the snowiest on record with 300 percent of average precipitation. The soil still holds some of that moisture, and new greenery should push up to dampen the current tinderbox of last season’s dead plants.

Yet because March historically provides so of much of Colorado’s snow, Ryan said, a really wet February doesn’t make up for a really dry March.

“To get shut out like this in March is serious,” Ryan said.

Last year also saw a dry March, Segin said. And while there were several fires this month — one catastrophic — last year was even worse in terms of some numbers.

The northern Front Range suburbs

experienced 27 wildfires in March 2011. That was nine times what had been the 15-year average of three. But wet, cool May and June saved the 2011 season, Segin said.

Until saving rain or snow comes, much of the Front Range finds itself in a red zone — the place where homes, woodlands and terrible conditions overlap.

Right now, Segin said, everything east of the Continental Divide and below 8,000 or 9,000 feet is a red zone.

“The key component in all this is ignition,” Segin said. “Fires this time of year, before lightning storms start around late May, are almost all caused by humans.”

Michael Davis, a volunteer firefighter for Elk Creek, sharpens his line-digging tool Tuesday.

The Jefferson County fire has raged since Monday night.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com

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9News anchor Kyle Dyer will once again be sharing her mornings with a television audience.

Dyer announced Friday morning that she is heading back to work Monday after recovering from being bitten Dyer in the face by a dog on live television.

“Woke up at 5 a.m. to get ready for an even earlier alarm on Monday.

Yes, I’m headed back to work! Happy Weekend!” Dyer posted on her Facebook page Friday morning.

Dyer was bitten by Max, an Argentine mastiff, on Feb. 8, and the wound required 70 stitches in an initial surgery. Despite the injury, Dyer kept a positive, optimistic attitude during her recovery.

She also went on NBC’s “Today” to talk about the incident.

Max the dog spent 10 days in quarantine before being released to his owner.

While recovering from the dog bite, the morning news anchor also underwent an unrelated hip-replacement surgery. The Denver Post

Evans cop shot in back, suspect in head A man shot an Evans police officer early Friday, and officers returned fire, hitting the suspect.

The incident happened about 1 a.m. in the 2400 block of Quay Street, according to an Evans police news release.

Officers went to the home on a medical-assist call, and when they arrived, a man opened fire, police said.

Officer Peter Bratton was shot in the upper back, police said. He was in stable condition Friday, with injuries that were Bratton not life-threatening.

The suspect, who has not been identified, was shot in the head. He was scheduled for surgery, police said. Further details on his condition were not released.

Bratton and a second officer, who has not been identified, returned fire in the incident, police said. That officer was not hit by gunfire.

A woman who was home at the time was taken to a local hospital for injuries that do “not appear to be related to the shooting,” police said. The incident is being investigated by the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, the Greeley Police Department and Evans police. Kieran Nicholson, The Denver Post

LOWER NORTH FORK FIRE

Briefs CHARGES FILED IN DEATH NEAR SCHOOL Charges have been filed against a suspect arrested earlier this week in the shooting of 18-year-old De’Quan Walker Smith.

Mannie Legrand, 20, is being charged with first-degree murder after deliberation and first-degree murder with extreme indifference.

Both are felonies.

The charges allege that on March 19 at about 2:40 p.m., Legrand shot and killed Walker-Smith near East 29th Avenue and Franklin Street, just blocks from Manual High School.

Legrand is being held without bail and will make his first court appearance Monday. Court records show Legrand already had a warrant for a parole violation in November 2010.

Legrand had been released from prison on parole after he was sentenced to serve four years for a felony burglary case from August 2009.

Woman charged with attempted kidnapping. A woman was charged this week in the attempted kidnapping of her 5-year-old daughter earlier this month after the plan went wrong and she was shot by an accomplice.

Adolfina Waters, 25, is charged with solicitation to commit kidnapping and two counts of child abuse.

According to a news release from the Denver district attorney’s office, Waters and Jose Rodriguez, 25, agreed to a plan to help Waters unlawfully take her daughter from the child’s father.

On March 9, they tried to carry out the plan, but during the incident, the child’s father attempted to disarm Rodriguez but the gun went off and a bullet struck Waters in the chest.

Waters was treated at a local hospital and is now in custody. Her bail is set at $50,000. Rodriguez is also in custody on $150,000 bail.

Avalanche kills man near Telluride.

A Colorado man has died in an avalanche on Ophir Pass, near Telluride.

San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters said the man was the first in a group of four skiers to head down a slope Friday afternoon when the others yelled that an avalanche was coming. They say the avalanche caught him just as he turned to look back.

Masters said the slide was about 1 mile long and 200 yards wide.

DA candidate charged with domestic violence. Criminal defense lawyer Todd Barson, the locally favored Democratic candidate for district attorney, was charged with domestic violence, harassment and one other charge Friday, Breckenridge police confirmed to the Summit Daily.

Barson, 44, turned himself in to the Summit County Jail on Friday morning , the Breckenridge Police Department told the newspaper.

Denver Post staff and wire reports

Contact The Post Delivery/Subscriptions Denver Metro 303-832-3232 Statewide 800-543-5543 Other Denver Post business phone numbers and e-mail addresses can be found on Page 6B.

Newsroom Editor ..............................303-954-1400 Editorial Page ...................303-954-1331 Newsroom .......................303-954-1201 Photo ..............................303-954-1321 Outside metro area ...........800-336-7678

Share your news tips 303-954-1201

CITY DESK: Kevin Vaughan

9News anchor bitten by dog returning to work Monday

News tips: 303-954-1201

Sheriff, call firm feud At issue is whether a software glitch stymied resident notification.

By Kirk Mitchell The Denver Post

Jefferson County and a company that warns people of imminent danger are grappling over whether a glitch in the company’s software failed to notify numerous people about the Lower North Fork fire.

The president of the warning service, Louisiana-based First Call Network, also said of 1,089 calls that went to land lines, 957 were successful, including a call made to the home of Samuel Lucas, 77, and his wife, Linda, 76, who were killed as the fire swept over their property.

First Call president Matt Teague said the relatively few instances where emergency calls were not played to residents came about because of problems such as phones being disconnected and people hanging

up before the message played.

He said that Jefferson County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley mistakenly reported Thursday that 12 percent of residents near the fire did not receive the calls. He said the calls went out, but for a variety of reasons not related to his company’s software, messages were not fully played.

Of those, residents hung up before full notifications were made 36 times, 32 calls were not answered, 90 calls were made to phone numbers that have been disconnected and 12 phones were busy.

County officials disputed Teague.

“We certainly don’t see eye to eye on this,” said Mark Techmeyer, spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. “We know for a fact that homes did not receive a call that should have. It’s a substantial number of people.”

Techmeyer said Teague’s explanation of those particular calls appears to be accurate, but the county has identified numerous instances where people on the list did not receive calls.

The Sheriff’s Office has several people tracking down what went wrong.

“We’ve got to figure out what happened so we can fix the problem,” he said.

He said that after the evacuations, the Sheriff’s Office received numerous calls from residents who should have gotten the calls but didn’t. When sheriff’s workers checked their stories, they determined that no calls were ever sent to those homes, confirming what they said.

“We believe it’s a software glitch,” he said.

Department employees are comparing a list of who received the calls with a list of people who actually got calls. It’s unclear exactly how many people did not get calls at this point.

“There’s not a bigger thing going on than getting to the bottom of this,” Techmeyer said. “If it’s not the software and it is our fault, we’ll say so.

When we screw up, no one will scream louder than (Sheriff) Ted Mink.”

Teague said other notification mis-

haps Monday had nothing to do with First Call software and were the result of human error.

Sheriff Ted Mink said emergency notifications were initially sent out to people throughout Jefferson County who had signed up for e-mail and cellphone emergency notifications instead of just to people in the affected area. Residents not in danger of the fire were flooding dispatch centers.

First Call was formed in 1998 and has between 150 and 200 clients across the country, from small communities to the state of Delaware.

Teague said 88 percent notification is a great percentage.

“It’s way above average,” Teague said.

The Jefferson County Emergency Communications Authority pays an annual fee of $60,000 to First Call to maintain its notification system, said Jeff Irvin, executive director of the agency.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com

Evacuees allowed briefly back to homes

By Kristen Leigh Painter and Kieran Nicholson The Denver Post

jefferson county» As of Friday afternoon, crews had achieved 70 percent containment on the Lower North Fork fire.

“The easiest part has been done and the hardest part remains,” Incident Commander Rich Harvey said during an afternoon news conference, warning that the weekend outlook was worsening.

A total of 180 homes remained evacuated, and the size of the blaze remained 4,140 acres.

The residents who still can’t return home are able to go back under escort for a brief time to assess damage and pick up crucial items.

The escorted trips are on a “firstcome, first-served” basis, said Mark Techmeyer, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

More than 30 property owners went briefly to their homes Friday.

Escorts will start up again at 8 a.m. today.

Displaced residents who need to get back in may call 720-4544968 or 303-271-4930 to make an appointment.

“Sometimes people just need to see their home, they need the reassurance,” Techmeyer said. “And some of them want to grab things they may need.”

The Tyus family was escorted to their home, which is still standing, on Elk Mountain Trail.

To capitalize on their allotted 20 minutes at the property, mom Betsy Tyus had a piece of paper listing their valuables and necessary items by sections within the house.

Tyus and her children — Rebecca, 15, and John, 12 — were visiting Disneyland when the fire erupted.

The family began receiving distressed calls from friends and family Monday evening.

“We were constantly on the phone,” Betsy Tyus said. “To be in Disneyland and to get those two different worlds — one full of fun and excitement — at once was

Fax: 303-954-1369

Britney Chambers squeezes into the back of a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office squad car Friday with food and water for the deputies and firefighters working at the fire line. Chambers also was headed to her family’s home, which is still in the evacuation area. Photos by RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post odd.”

Betsy’s brother-in-law and a neighbor retrieved the family’s pets for them and got their horses to the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, where all evacuees’ non-domestic animals are being sheltered.

“When we were on the rides, I’d forget. And then, we’d get off and remember, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s a fire,” Rebecca Tyus said.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross shelter at West Jefferson Middle School in Conifer is transitioning to a disaster-recovery headquarters.

There will be no overnight stays for evacuees at the school any longer, but it will remain open as a resource center.

E-mail: newsroom@denverpost.com

Mail: Local News, The Denver Post, 101 W. Colfax Ave., Suite 600, Denver, CO 80202

A message on a rock outside Conifer High School on Friday expressed gratitude to crews working to contain the Lower North Fork fire.

AURORA SEES GARDEN ON HAVANA »11A

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Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire

sunny and breezy E70° F40° »22A B © the denver post B $1.00 price may vary outside metro denver

THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2012

dp

Online: From health care reform to wellness programs, get a daily dose of health news. »blogs.denverpost.com/health

L EG I S L ATU R E 2012

“Inactive voter” bill revived

by Dems GOP legislation is a vector for the measure that would ensure mailing of ballots to 439,560 potential voters.

By Tim Hoover and Sara Burnett The Denver Post

In a move likely to inflame partisan tensions, Colorado Democrats plan to graft dead legislation allowing counties to mail ballots to 439,560 “inactive voters” onto a resurrected Republican bill.

House Republicans said Senate Democrats were “hijacking” the House bill. But Democrats said the issue of allowing registered voters who didn’t vote in the last election to receive mail ballots was too important to give up.

“If it’s going to be a fight, this is worth fighting over,” Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, an organizer of the Democratic effort, said.

House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said he was surprised by the Democratic move.

“I know that from time to time bills are hijacked for other purposes,” McNulty said. “It’s pretty extraordinary that Senate Democrats would resurrect a (Republican) bill like this. It is extraordinary that they would go to these efforts.”

The conflict is over legislation INACTIVE » 7A

dp

66

Archive: Previous coverage of Scott Gessler’s bid for election security. »denverpost.com/extras

Voter ID: Democrats shoot down putting bill on ballot. »6A Elsewhere: Proposal makes Minnesota’s fall ballot. »6A

4-hour gap on fire Lower North Fork evacuation order came long after first 911 call THE FIRST CALL

12:43 p.m. March 26, from 13589 Callae Court: “I’m looking down toward Platte River Road. I think the prescribed burn down there is fired up again.”

470

KEN-CARYL

JEFFERSON COUNT Y

Dispatcher asks if the caller is looking toward Aspen Park.

285

ANN APPEL

ASPEN PARK

2:34 p.m. from Broadview Circle “It’s blowing smoke right over my house.”

“No. I’m looking directly south of my house, down toward Platte River Road.

It’s probably about 3 miles from me.”

Dispatcher asks if he’s seeing gray smoke.

KIM OLSON, (HUSBAND DOUG GULICK PICTURED)

call not time stamped, 14186 Kuehster Road “We have a fire. We’ve got haze and smoke up at our property. We’ve been smelling it for half an hour. I called before and you guys said it was nothing. It wasn’t a prescribed fire, was it? If it’s prescribed, it’s way out of control.”

“Whitish gray. It’s flat, going with the wind.”

Dispatcher says he’ll have the fire department check it out.

WITHIN THE FIRE PERIMETER

Destroyed structures

4,140

acres of burned land 285 70

Denver

225

470 Map area

BAILEY

25

PARK COUNT Y

homes destroyed

2:21 p.m., 14409 Eagle Vista Drive Lucas: “We just got home. It looks like there’s a fire right at the foot at Cathedral Spires.”

Fire perimeter

(Dispatcher cuts him off, saying that he is seeing a controlled burn that flared up)

FOXTON

Lucas: “We’ve got 79 mph winds and they’ve got a controlled burn?”

Dispatcher: “Yes.” Lucas: “Oh, wonderful. Thank you.”

Prescribed burn

The Denver Post

conifer» The first call about a wildfire that would kill three people came at 12:43 p.m., more than four hours before evacuation orders were given to residents, officials now acknowledge.

Ann Appel and Sam Lucas, who were killed in the blaze along with Lucas’ wife, Linda, called nearly three hours before the Lower North Fork fire swept over their properties.

“We’ve got 79 mph winds and they’ve got a controlled burn?”

“Yes,” a dispatcher responded.

“Oh, wonderful,” he said. “Thank you.”

Less than three hours later, calls warning residents to get out were issued.

Elk Creek Fire Chief Bill McLaughlin said Wednesday that the evacuation notice to residents of the Pleasant Park neighborhood should have been made at least an hour earlier, when it was clear the fire was being driven toward homes by winds gusting to 80 mph.

But initially it was not his call.

The Colorado State Forest Service had called the Elk Creek fire department for assistance when the remnants of a controlled burn reignited in hot, windy conditions during Colorado’s driest month on record.

“In retrospect, we probably should have gotten the word out sooner,” McLaughlin FIRE » 9A

State board denies Medicaid and insurer access to Rx registry

Joe Amon, The Denver Post

Colorado Medicaid officials and a private insurer have quietly sought access to the state’s prescription drug registry to help stop doctorshopping and pharmacy-hopping for pain pills, but a state board denied them.

The health care interests wanted access as part of wider efforts to slow an epidemic of painkiller overdoses and opioid misuse, which has resulted in a doubling of Colorado deaths and addicts seeking treatment.

The state registry records every dispensed prescription for controlled substances, and al-

lows doctors and pharmacists to review drug histories for their patients.

The state Board of Pharmacy said the law allows access only to those providing direct care or dispensing direct prescriptions, and told state Medicaid and Rocky Mountain Health Plans they could not conduct wider reviews. “(Medicaid) had plans of looking for clients seeking multiple providers for narcotics and paying cash for duplicative prescriptions,” said Rachel Reiter, spokeswoman for the state health finance department overseeing Medicaid.

“It would have been one more tool we would PRESCRIPTIONS » 10A

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The

Denver Post

FOCUSED ON COLORADO

In today’s Denver Post you’ll notice a new emphasis on local news and business.

We’re putting the in-depth news that affects Coloradans up front with a brand-new Section A.

days to gain control

DOUGL AS COUNT Y

By Kirk Mitchell The Denver Post

By Michael Booth The Denver Post

6

South Platte River

Sources: Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office; Ann Appel photo courtesy of 9News

“It’s blowing smoke right over my house,” Appel said, laughing nervously during a 2:34 p.m. call to a dispatcher March 26.

Sam Lucas had called at 2:21 p.m. about a wildfire at the foot of Cathedral Spires.

27

Kuehster Road

SAM LUCAS

You’ll still find the very best in local culture and entertainment coverage, national and world news, opinion and commentary and the award-winning sports coverage you’ve come to expect every day from Colorado’s media leader.

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More images, video and coverage of the fire. »denverpost. com/extras

More danger ahead: High winds today and Friday whip up additional wildfire warnings. »9A

FIRING BACK

Republican front-runner Mitt Romney calls President Barack Obama’s criticisms of the GOP “rhetorical excess” and “straw men that have no basis in reality.” »16A

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6

the denver post B denverpost.com B thursday, april 5, 2012

C OLO R A DO WILD F IRE OUTLOOK

NEWS «9A

FIRE: Radio signal mixup slowed crews

Red-flag warning in northwest

«

FROM 1A

said. “Had we taken charge of the fire sooner, we may have made that call.”

McLaughlin said the State Forest Service was more focused on gaining control of the fire.

But State Forest Service fire division supervisor Rich Homann said firefighter and public safety is always the agency’s top priority. He said he could not comment further until an independent investigation ordered by Gov. John Hickenlooper is completed.

McLaughlin said after he notified the Forest Service incident commander that he was taking control of fighting the fire, he immediately called for evacuations.

Jefferson County made its first wave of calls at 5:05 p.m., but the calls went to everyone in the county who had signed up for cellphone and e-mail notification. Dispatchers frantically fielded dozens of calls from people from Arvada to Evergreen, explaining the “glitch.”

The second series of emergency phone notifications went out at 5:23 p.m., said Jefferson County sheriff’s spokesman Mark Techmeyer.

McLaughlin said he first got a call from a citizen at 1:55 p.m. March 26 about a wildfire 6 miles south of Conifer. However, the first 911 call was made at 12:43 p.m., Techmeyer said. It’s unclear whether the Forest Service was notified first.

While McLaughlin and a crew of three firefighters were responding to the citizen call, the fire chief received another call from the Forest Service, which had also called the North Fork and Inter-Canyon volunteer fire departments for assistance.

Initially it was a described as a 1-acre “slop over” wildfire that had crossed the boundaries of the controlled burn area, he said. Such a fire could be extinguished by a few truck crews, he said.

McLaughlin, who moved from Washington state and took the paid fire chief position in February, and his crew were delayed by about 15 minutes because they had trouble finding the right road.

“By the time we arrived, it had grown to 5 acres,” he said. The Forest Service incident commander was then calling it an “escaped” fire, a more urgent category.

Another 15 minutes was lost after their arrival because they were on different radio frequencies than the state and couldn’t find each other, McLaughlin said. The local crews couldn’t tune in to the Forest Service channel. Ultimately, the

By Joey Bunch The Denver Post

Spring winds will blow across Colorado today, with the potential to whip up wildfires, authorities warned Wednesday.

Northwestern Colorado will be under a critical “red flag” fire-danger warning from noon until 8 p.m. today, with low humidity, steady winds of 25 mph and gusts up to 40 mph, the National Weather Service said.

“Any fire ignitions will be very difficult to control with high rates of spread possible Thursday afternoon and evening,” the Weather Service warned. “Simple agricultural burns will risk a loss of control.”

All of the state, except for southeastern Colorado, will be under a fire-weather watch, the precursor to a red-flag warning, from Friday morning to Friday night.

Winds today and Friday will be pushed by a mild cold front expected to reach the metro region Friday night, keeping high temperatures in the 60s this weekend, forecasters said.

Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo and fire chiefs from Aspen, Snowmass, Basalt and Carbondale imposed a ban on outdoor fires Wednesday, joining Boulder, Jefferson, Douglas, Eagle, Clear Creek and Teller counties, as well as Denver Mountain Parks, which imposed bans last week. Gov. John Hickenlooper has suspended the use of prescribed burns by the state after a Colorado State Forest Service burn sparked last week’s Lower North Fork fire, which charred 4,140 acres in Jefferson County, burned 27 homes and claimed three lives.

Conditions will be comparatively mild in the metro region. Denver should see wind gusts of more than 20 mph today and Friday, according to the Weather Service.

Spring is prone to fires in the West as snow cover melts, exposing dead, dry grass and brush.

Along with low humidity, high winds, pushed by sporadic cold fronts, sweep from the mountains to the plains. The National Interagency Coordination Center reported Wednesday that the Rocky Mountain region had 41 large fires last week.

Flames from the Lower North Fork fire, which flared up March 26 and took six days to get under control, attack a ridge near Reynolds Park in Jefferson County. A veteran firefighter said the flames moved faster than any wildfire he had seen. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post state contacted McLaughlin and he relayed state orders to the other crews. It was about 3 p.m.

Intense winds were pushing 8- to 10-foot-high flames, he said. The winds gusted up to 80 mph.

“Firefighters had to hide behind their trucks to avoid being completely blown over. They were being pelted by embers as they were standing there,” McLaughlin said.

By 4 p.m., he and North Fork Chief Curt Rogers considered evacuations. They made the first request for air tankers, McLaughlin said.

“The fire was so intense, there was no way to get the fire out at the head of the fire,” he said.

“We were having whole branches breaking off and blowing away. That’ s pretty much a worstcase scenario.”

The branches started hundreds of spot fires as much as a half-mile away.

Between 4:30 and 5 p.m., McLaughlin notified

the Forest Service that he and Rogers were taking control of the fire in a unified command.

Evacuations began, and he ordered 25 fire additional firetrucks. They moved the command post from behind the wildfire to Aspen Park.

“In retrospect, they would agree they should have taken a bigger-picture view and requested evacuation,” McLaughlin said.

But he added that the fire moved twice as fast as they expected and faster than any wildfire he had seen in 25 years of battling wildfires from San Diego to Alaska.

“When the fire crested the hill into that neighborhood, the flames were up to 100 feet in the air,” he said. “It was spreading 200 feet a minute.”

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com; fire updates at twitter.com/kmitchelldp

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6

Online poll: Are you for or against President Barack Obama’s “Buffett rule”? »denverpost.com/extras

Wildfire report finds lapse DENVER & THE WEST

COORS’ BIG BUCKS DRAW CRITICISM

Personnel didn’t patrol a controlled burn, but even a full crew couldn’t have halted its spread.

WELCOME HOME: THE STORY OF SCOTT OSTROM

By Eric Gorski The Denver Post

Despite increasingly dire weather forecasts, fire managers decided against patrolling a controlled burn the day before it jumped its containment lines and exploded into the deadly Lower North Fork fire.

But that violation of protocol — as well as a lack of manpower on the ground when the fire blew up — likely would not have prevented the March 26 wildfire that killed three people and destroyed 27 homes.

William Bass of the U.S. Forest Service, who headed a team that issued a report Monday with those findings, said even if the ground had been flat, four engines with full crews could not have halted the fire.

At the moment the prescribed fire broke free, the crew on the site — which is steeply pitched in spots — comprised three people and a modified all-terrain vehicle with a 70-gallon water tank, Bass said.

The winds on the afternoon of March 26 were so fierce — gusting to 55 mph — one reviewer likened the conditions to those of the 1994 South Canyon Fire near Glenwood Springs that killed 14 firefighters.

Bass’ 152-page report, the first of sev-

A campaign report shows Joe Coors donated $218,248 of his own money, 49 percent of his total raised in the last quarter, to his 7th Congressional District race, bringing criticism from Democrats. »4A

NATION & WORLD

DAMAGE CONTROL Campaign officials play down Mitt Romney’s candid talk about tax changes for the wealthy. »15A

SPORTS

A NEW TEAM, NEW PRESSURE FOR MANNING For the first time in his storied career, Peyton Manning must deal with the type of pressure felt only by a hired gun. »1B

OUTWEST Five reasons to visit.

The time between ski season and summer is ideal for a trip to Beaver Creek. »2C

S

FIRE » 8A

cott Ostrom is comforted by a friend during an argument with his girlfriend over the phone. Sitting on the bed, he started crying. Ostrom says it has been hard to find meaning in his life since 2007, when he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps. In today’s community of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, one in five suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression. Ostrom is one of them. Denver Post photographer Craig F. Walker spent 10 months with Ostrom and chronicled his story in a photo essay that appeared online and was honored Monday with the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. » see the photos at denverpost.com

DIALYSIS ALTERNATIVES

In-home, night treatments gain favor with many

By Michael Booth The Denver Post

“For his compassionate chronicle of an honorably discharged veteran, home from Iraq and struggling with a severe case of post-traumatic stress, images that enable viewers to better grasp a national issue.” The Pulitzer Prize Board

The choices facing Robert Mueller ranged from bad to worse.

With his kidneys failing, Mueller needed to begin the regimen that defines the lives of hundreds of thousands of seriously ill Americans: sitting in a chair three times a week, four hours at a time, hooked to a machine cleaning deadly toxins from their bodies.

Typical daytime dialysis in one of dozens of Colorado clinics would have forced Mueller, 57, to quit his day job as a Safeway checker.

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2012 Pulitzer Prize: Feature Photography

Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post

By Felisa Cardona The Denver Post

A photo essay of a combat veteran’s grueling readjustment to life in Colorado following two tours of duty in Iraq earned Denver Post photographer Craig F. Walker a Pulitzer Prize on Monday.

It is the second time in three years Walker has earned the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

The Pulitzers are considered journalism’s highest honors, and Walker appears to be only the fourth entrant in the contest’s photography categories ever to win a Pulitzer twice for solo work.

Walker’s first Pulitzer, in 2010, was for “Ian Fisher: American Soldier,” which documented a young man’s progression from the life of a high school student to becoming a soldier in Iraq.

This year’s prize was for Walker’s gripping photographs of reconnaissance man Scott Ostrom, a 27year-old combat veteran suffering from severe posttraumatic stress disorder.

“It’s pretty amazing and very humbling,” Walker said of winning two Pulitzers. “It is shocking and unbelievable and just hard to grasp.”

DIALYSIS » 9A

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tuesday, april 17, 2012 B denverpost.com B the denver post

FIRE: Mild forecasts did not hold

«

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FROM 1A

eral planned reviews of the fire and its aftermath, was commissioned by Gov. John Hickenlooper and Colorado State University. CSU oversees the Colorado State Forest Service, which planned and executed the controlled burn.

“Our goal is to make sure we have all the facts and find out where the responsibility does lie, and to make sure we are taking every opportunity to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Hickenlooper said Monday.

Hickenlooper and CSU president Tony Frank also have ordered a review of the state’s emergency response to wildfires. Separately, the governor and members of the state’s congressional delegation are asking the U.S. Forest Service for a federal review of the fire that would examine fire-suppression efforts, evacuation procedures, communication between responders and residents, and other issues.

Monday’s report included a handful of recommendations, including improving weather information and fire-danger rating systems used in fire planning, and strengthening standards for mopping up burns, especially in the increasingly populated foothills.

The review found the prescribed fire was “well-prepared” and -executed — except for the failure to patrol the site March 25.

Patrols are required for at least three days after a prescribed burn and in this case were conducted only two days afterward, Bass said.

Yet even if a crew were on site that day, conditions were not dangerous and hot spots would have been permitted to burn, he said.

The report judged that the lack of patrols had a “neutral” impact on the fire’s escape, noting that a standard 200-foot barrier was in place and that it is “speculative” whether more patrols would have led to more

6

Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, holds a news conference Monday at the state Capitol on a state-commissioned report on the controlled burn that led to the Lower North Fork fire last month. Joining Hickenlooper are William Bass, center, of the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado State University president Tony Frank. Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post mop-up.

CSU spokesman Mike Hooker echoed that, saying fire personnel decided Sunday patrols were not needed based on the forecast for Sunday and the established control line around the fire.

Given Colorado’s unseasonably dry March, much attention has focused on the weather before the state’s planned burn.

Ignition day, March 22, “looked like a really good go,” Bass said, with the forecast calling for cooling on March 25 and “moderate” winds the following day.

But that forecast did not hold.

A red-flag watch for potentially hazardous wildfire conditions for March 26 was issued at midafternoon March 24. Another red-flag warning was issued at 3:19 p.m. March 25.

At about 1:15 p.m. March 26, winds carried a stream of embers across the established 200foot fire-control line.

The three-person crew was able to snuff out two resulting spot fires, but a third was beyond their grasp and sparked the wildfire.

The wind was so fierce, it reignited material that had essentially been reduced to charcoal,

an extremely rare occurrence, Bass said.

Hooker said fire personnel thought the red-flag warning and the potential of a new fire in an uncontained area posed a greater threat than the prescribed burn smoldering in a contained area.

The report suggested looking at widening containment lines from 200 feet to 300 feet in some cases.

The prescribed fire, considered a key weapon in forest health, was primarily aimed at clearing out chewed-up pieces of ponderosa pine that had been put on the forest floor six years earlier to reduce fire risk.

Among the other recommendations in the report Monday: • Consider using an outside technical reviewer for more complex prescribed burns, particularly those covering multiple jurisdictions.

• Consider burning fuels created by mechanical forest thinning and grinding separately from the natural fuels. That turned out to be a challenge in what ultimately became the Lower North Fork fire.

Eric Gorski: 303-954-1971 or egorski@denverpost.com

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Online: Watch video, view images of shuttle Discovery’s final flight over Washington, D.C. »denverpost.com/extras

NATION & WORLD

SECRET SERVICE TO UNDERGO INVESTIGATION Secret Service director Mark Sullivan reportedly called for an independent investigation into an incident in which at least 20 foreign women and as many Secret Service and military personnel met at a hotel in Colombia. »19A

SPORTS

APRIL 18, 1942 | WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN Sixteen B-25 bombers took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet to bomb Japan. Known as the Doolittle Raid, the attack raised American morale after the disaster of Pearl Harbor the previous December. Denver resident Russell Plybon, now 94, was a 24-year-old aircraft mechanic aboard the carrier.

“I stood right at the center of the flight deck and watched them take o≠.”

By Colleen O’Connor The Denver Post

AWIN ATLAST In his third start of the season, 49-yearold Jamie Moyer of the Rockies becomes the oldest pitcher to win a major-league game. »1B

DENVER & THE WEST

R

ussell Plybon has a fuzzy memory. But there are some things the 94-year-old World War II veteran will never forget, such as the morning of April 18, 1942, when the legendary Doolittle Raid on Tokyo was launched from the USS Hornet.

“I stood right at the center of the flight deck and watched them take off,” said Plybon, sitting in the living room of the home he built in Denver’s University Hills neighborhood after returning from the war.

“One of the pilots forgot to put his flaps down, and when he went off the end of the ship, he sunk down. Everyone thought, ‘Well, he went into the water.’ But pretty soon here, he come back up.”

Today is the 70th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid, that daring airstrike involving 80 airmen and 16 aircraft in World War II that took place four months after the Japanese attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor. Four of the five living Doolittle Raiders will attend a reunion ceremony at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, near Dayton, Ohio.

Plybon was a 24-year-old farm boy from Missouri who had enlisted in the Navy immediately after Pearl Harbor. He was trained as an aircraft mechanic and assigned to the Bombing 8 squadron, where he worked on aircraft that included the Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless dive bomber, which could carry 1,200 pounds of bombs.

DOOLITTLE » 13A

Russell Plybon, who lives in south Denver, enlisted immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor and fought at the Battles of Midway and the Santa Cruz Islands before being wounded. AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post; below, Associated Press file

Online. Twenty B-25 Mitchell bombers are flown to Dayton, Ohio, for the 70th anniversary of the raid. »denverpost.com/mediacenter

COFFMAN WANTS TROOPS IN EUROPE OUT U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, an Aurora Republican and former Marine, will propose pulling all four of the Army brigade combat teams out of Western Europe. »4A

BUSINESS

SPACE-FRONTIER FANS ARGUE FOR FUNDING Speakers at the National Space Symposium say these are lean times for aerospace, but they stress exploration’s importance to everyday life. »15A

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6

LOWER NORTH FORK FIRE

Report: Earlier blaze a red flag Last month’s tragedy was born in the same spot as an October fire.

By Eric Gorski The Denver Post

On Oct. 13, as firefighters built a blackened line meant to contain a controlled burn, embers jumped a road and sparked a small fire.

The crew had it contained within 10 minutes, but it should have left a lasting impression, according to the head of a team that reviewed what happened: The topography made this a potential trouble spot when it came time for the burn itself, especially if winds kicked up.

On March 26, four days after the burn was carried out, that same location was where the Lower North Fork fire was born.

That disclosure — made in a 152page report released this week on the burn and its escape — raises additional questions about how the State Forest Service managed a forest-health project that became a devastating wildfire that killed three people and destroyed 27 homes.

FIRE » 9A

PROPOSED CAMPING BA N

Few homeless to face arrest, police chief says

By Jeremy P. Meyer The Denver Post

Denver police say they would probably make few arrests under a proposed law that would forbid unauthorized camping in the city as a way to deal with the increasing number of homeless people.

Instead, the homeless would be asked to move along or officers would connect them with social services if it appeared they needed help.

“Our approach to this is passive,” said Denver Police Chief Robert White at a City Council committee meeting Tuesday to discuss the possible ordinance. “The last thing officers want to do is arrest someone for being homeless.”

BAN » 12A

6

the denver post B denverpost.com B wednesday, april 18, 2012

NEWS «9A

FIRE: “Lessons learned” section of report highlighted area of Oct. blaze FROM 1A

The earlier spot fire “escalates concern about a location,” said William Bass, a U.S. Forest Service supervisor in Wyoming who headed the review team.

“If you’ve had an escape, even a small one, it should be a watchout for one on a larger scale.”

Yet the Forest Service sent only a three-person crew to patrol the perimeter of the 50-acre burn area on the day it jumped the line, even though a red-flag warning had been issued the previous afternoon.

The firefighters on site were busy with two other spot fires that escaped elsewhere, the report said. By the time the incident commander spotted heavy smoke near the site of the October fire and found another one burning there, his rig was out of water.

State Forest Service spokesman Ryan Lockwood said Tuesday the spot fire extinguished in October “did not indicate that area needed special attention.”

He reiterated that the 200foot buffer built around the controlled-burn area is the industry standard, and that there was no indication at the time that a broader line — or increased staffing — was needed.

“It’s important to note that specifically because of red-flag warnings on the Monday the escape occurred, firefighters anticipated the potential need to respond to wildfires in the area,” Lockwood said.

The fact that the buffer was well-established, he said, “made it prudent, without the benefit of hindsight, to free up resources to respond to other incidents.”

This week’s report cited several factors in the fire’s escape, including insufficient weather and drought projections, unburned vegetation, the failure of usually reliable tactics, and winds that came fast and strong.

Bass said he thinks the crew kept a close enough eye on the spot where the controlled burn escaped.

“They were watching it all the time,” he said. “But when you are actually out on the site, it’s hard to get up and down the area.”

In a section of the report titled “lessons learned,” both personnel who worked the fire and the review team acknowledged that “an area that gave you a problem during black-lining” could be a problem later.

The spot fire in October happened at a saddle — a little depression between two higher points — as crews were using drip torches to build a black strip stretching 50 feet.

Fire has a tendency to march uphill, Bass said, but a low point or dip like a saddle can be a dangerous weak point, with generated heat creating a force that pushes flames forward and through.

In this instance, fire personnel were there to stamp it out quickly.

On March 22, the longplanned prescribed burn went off as anticipated.

Mop-up crews began their work that night and continued the next day. Patrols on March 24 found isolated fires smoldering in the unit.

The burn boss and state district forester decided not to patrol March 25, as required in the plan, reasoning that the forecast was favorable and the containment lines would hold.

The next day, under a red-flag warning with winds forecast for gusts of 50 mph, a three-person crew returned to patrol.

According to the review, they found nothing alarming. Two areas within the burn continued to smolder. The lines had held.

Between 12:40 p.m. and 12:50 p.m., winds picked up, fanning hot spots in the burn area and causing smoke and embers that looked “like fleas” to land in the black-lined area. Firefighters mopped it up.

The next hour would prove pivotal. On a run to a creek to refill their 70-gallon tank, the incident commander called for an additional engine — but did not request additional firefighters.

While he was gone, the two other firefighters spotted two spot fires that had jumped the line and contained them. When

their boss returned, they exhausted the just-replenished water supply.

As winds grew stronger, the commander grew concerned about smoke around a site

called DP-5, about 1,500 feet away.

When he arrived, he found another spot fire burning next to the control lines of the fire that crews had snuffed five

months earlier.

He drove up the road, called for reinforcements and returned to the creek for more water. By the time the engine he had requested arrived, the spot

fire had grown to 1.5 acres. And it couldn’t be tamed.

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Online today: Get the latest info on Madden NFL 13 at the Game On Blog. »blogs.denverpost.com/videogames

NATION

1992 L.A. RIOTS MEAN LITTLE TO AREA RESIDENTS South-Central Los Angeles has changed since the riots 20 years ago that left dozens of people dead, and neighbors see no reason to bring it up now. »6A

Mountain manhunt. A suspect in a double slaying apparently shot himself while holed up in his camouflaged and wellstocked bunker. »4A

HEA LTHY C O M P ETIT IO N ?

ANATOMY OF A WILDFIRE LOWER NORTH FORK FIRE AMBUSHED OFFICIALS AND LEFT RESIDENTS SCRAMBLING FOR THEIR LIVES

“WE WEREN’T NOVICES.”

Hospital systems’ push to pick up patients is echoed across Colorado.

WORLD

BIN LADEN’S LEGACY THRIVES

By Michael Booth The Denver Post

“Lone wolf” groups and individuals sympathetic to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda represent a global threat experts say is difficult to stop. »14A

BUSINESS Spirited attitude.

After an absence of eight years, irreverent Spirit Airlines returns to DIA on Thursday with low fares and unorthodox ads. »1K

Med centers battle for biz

Andrew Hoover built his home to survive fire, or so he thought. Like his fire-savvy neighbors, he was stunned by the fire’s speed and the tardiness of evacuation orders. “I sort of understood that I might not make it out of this mess,” the presidential descendant said of being trapped by flames. »story, 16A Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post

greeley» Hospital A bought a new helicopter.

Soon Hospital B, which already had a helicopter, bought the ambulance service from the county in a no-bid, hush-hush deal.

Hospital A, based in another city, started building an emergency room in the backyard of Hospital B. So Hospital B started building a second emergency room for itself — 10 blocks from Hospital A’s new emergency room. When completed, they will be the fifth and sixth ERs in a 15mile radius.

Then Hospital B teamed with the state’s largest HMO. So Hospital A started its own HMO with the state’s largest insurance company.

HOSPITALS » 19A

By John Ingold and Kirk Mitchell The Denver Post

Outside the windows of Steve Foster’s pickup, Armageddon was coming.

A rampage of smoke — white and streaked with black — crested the ridge to his left and bore down. ¶ It began blocking the sun, turning daylight to twilight. Glowing, tracer-bullet embers zipped by on the road behind him.

He could hear the fury inside the charging plume, and it reminded him of a jet engine gaining thrust. ¶ 600 yards away. Now 500. 400.

SUMMER CONCERTS Colorado’s music scene is heating up.

Save the dates for 10 must-see shows. »arts & culture, 1E

Driving out of the neighborhood, Foster convinced himself the fire would just scoot by. My house will be OK, he thought. My friends will be OK. But, behind him, three of his friends were dying in what would come to be called the Lower North Fork fire. His neighbors’ houses were burning. Soon, his would be too.

This was unimaginable just two hours before, when he drove into the valley below his house to investigate a small fire that the firefighter on scene insisted was manageable. Back at home, Foster told his wife not to worry.

“There was a sense of denial,” he said. “I said, ‘Honey, I was down there. There were crews arriving. It’s going to be OK.’” He pauses.

“How stupid.”

What if you were in a race for your life, only you didn’t know it?

When disaster strikes, you often hear that it happens all at once — that there is no time to know what is coming. But in the Lower North Fork fire, there was time — hours of it. What there wasn’t was foresight. » 17A

Blind activist’s stunning flight shocks China

By Andrew Jacobs The New York Times

beijing» The escape of a wellknown dissident from government detention — aided by a network of activists who helped him evade security forces for days — is emboldening China’s human-rights community, even as the authorities have begun rounding up those they suspect helped him flee.

As more details of his escape from virtual imprisonment in his home emerged Saturday, it became more clear how difficult, and dangerous, the last week has been for both the dissident, Chen Guangcheng, who is blind, and his DISSIDENT » 16A

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the denver post B denverpost.com B sunday, april 29, 2012

«

NEWS «17A

“I could just feel radiated heat.

It was just like in front of an open oven.”

FROM 1A

Flames leap above a ridge on the eastern edge of the Lower North Fork fire on March 26. Fueled by high winds, the fire raced past firefighters with surprising speed, eventually killing three people. A fire official said evacuation orders should have been made earlier. Helen H. Richardson, Denver Post file

Getting out of hand

op Tra il

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Where bodies were found

North Trail Circle

Ea gle Vista

El k Rid

S. Fo xton Road

Prescribed burn

Dr.

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Co.R d. 97

West P latte Rive r R oad

2:12 p.m. – Jefferson County dispatch broadcasts that fire is 1 acre with low spread potential.

2:28 p.m. – North Fork Fire Department Chief Curt Rogers reports fire is now 5 acres and requests more fire crews.

3:34 p.m. - Fire estimated at 10 to 15 acres.

4:41 p.m. – Fire crosses key drainage, prompting officials to begin evacuation order.

Kuehs ter Ro ad

Crown fire A running crown fire, which jumps from treetop to treetop, sped the fire’s growth as winds spewed golf-ball size embers.

D

B A

South Platte River

E

Broadview Circle

Pla t

1:40 p.m. – Colorado State Forest Service reports a “slop over” fire in the Lower North Fork controlled burn area.

1:50 p.m. – Fire estimated at 1.5 acres.

. 2946 Rd

Once on scene, dispatch records and official reports show that firefighters ordered an increasing amount of resources to combat the growing blaze.

The wind blew so hard that firefighters could barely keep their helmets on, according to statements made to a Jefferson County sheriff’s investigator.

Golf-ball-size embers flew around them.

About 3:30 p.m., the fire chiefs on scene decided to wait to order evacuations until the flames crossed a natural drainage point in the valley below Kuehster Road. The fire was about 10 to 15 acres in size but growing quickly.

It took another hour for the fire to cross that drainage, right around the time Eddie Schneider pulled into his driveway on the ridge above after hurrying home when he saw smoke during

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Evacuations put on hold

Kue hst er R oad .

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Fire Destroyed perimeter structures

FOXTON

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Fire timeline

470 Chatfield Lake

.

F

N

2 miles

S. Ridge

Rd

A community on alert Whoever named the neighborhood Pleasant Park knew what he was talking about. Sitting atop a ridgeline at about 8,000 feet, it looks down across a grand sweep of valleys and hills.

Homes are spaced leisurely along the ridge, their big windows soaking in the views.

The focal point of the community along Kuehster Road — pronounced “Custer” by locals — was a red, singleroom schoolhouse built in 1920. Foster and his neighbors worked to restore the schoolhouse, making it into a gathering spot for the Sampson Community Club.

One Fourth of July, Foster said, neighbors met outside the school for a cookout. But then the clouds grew dark and the winds blew up. When rain began to fall, the neighbors scampered into Foster’s house a few yards away.

And the party continued.

“I’m out there firing up my big grill, getting pelted by hail and cooking up 40 to 50 hamburgers and just having a great time,” Foster remembers.

As soon as residents spotted smoke on March 26, at the site of a state-set controlled burn conducted days before, they began calling each other to share what they knew. Then they called 911.

Sam Lucas, who lived next to Hoover, was one of the first, at about 2:20 p.m.

“The Forest Service is out there,” the dispatcher said.

Fifteen minutes later, Ann Appel called.

“They’ve got crews on the way,” the dispatcher answered.

At another point, a dispatcher told a resident that the fire is, “a controlled burn that slightly got out of control.”

It was 5 acres then, according to an investigative report. Firefighters had no containment, and the winds had begun to gust. Within an hour, winds were blowing at a steady 20 mph.

285

As the Lower North Fork fire erupted March 26, officials repeatedly underestimated the severity of the fire. Residents say that gave them a false sense of security. By the time the order to evacuate came, it was only minutes before flames roared up to their homes.

7 .9 .Rd Co

A reassembling of the timeline for March 26, the day the fire ignited — pieced together from interviews, official documents and audio records — shows a repeated official underestimation of the fire’s severity.

Emergency dispatchers often told residents calling about smoke that it was from a controlled burn started by the Colorado State Forest Service the week before, sometimes without adding that the burn had jumped containment.

Fire officials waited to order evacuations until the blaze crossed a certain point in the terrain, not realizing how quickly it would gallop across the space between that point and homes.

Only 20 minutes before the fire began destroying homes, one fire chief estimated it would be two hours until structures would be threatened.

When the evacuation order finally came, it was too late for some. An entire neighborhood of families had to make a flames-at-their-backs escape.

“We weren’t novices; we understood fires,” said Andy Hoover, who was trapped in his house as the fire that killed his neighbors Sam and Linda Lucas and Ann Appel raged outside. “I guess I didn’t think about it because it was a controlled burn and it was being monitored.

“We didn’t sense the alarm that possibly we should have,” he said.

Recognizing the problems in the fire response, Gov. John Hickenlooper has proposed consolidating fire and emergency management functions in a single state department to streamline the chain-of-command and quicken decisionmaking. Jefferson County authorities also have announced changes to evacuation procedures to give residents earlier warning when danger is looming.

“We know that not every fire will give us that opportunity,” Jefferson County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said. “There was that opportunity in the Lower North Fork fire.”

C

5:01 p.m. – Fire estimated at over 100 acres and growing.

5:02 p.m. – Jefferson County dispatch sends out emergency evacuation order.

5:12 p.m. – Rogers estimates structures will be threatened within two hours.

5:25 p.m. – Andy Hoover says flames reached his house on Eagle Vista Drive.

5:32 p.m. – Firefighters report that homes are burning on the south end of Kuehster Road.

Fire starts here

P I K E N AT I O N A L F O R E ST

5:47 p.m. – Firefighters report that the head of the fire is south of the intersection of Elk Ridge and Kuehster Road.

Winds gusting to 80 mph rapidly pushed flames uphill toward homes.

The fire moved both by racing along the ground in grass and pine needles and by jumping from tree to tree in more densely forested areas. Embers blew hundreds of feet in front of the fire, igniting new fires in spots dried out by wind and heat.

6:35 p.m. - Firefighters report homes are burning on Rocky Top Trail.

6:43 p.m. – Andy Hoover calls 911 to report his house is in flames.

A

1:40 p.m., the Colorado State Forest Service identifies the “slop over” and at 1:50 p.m. estimates the size of the fire to be approximately 1.5 acres. Responding units from the Elk Creek and North Fork fire departments are advised that the fire is 1 acre with a low spread potential.

B

2:28 p.m., NFFD Chief Curt Rogers reports the fire has spread to 5 acres.

C

The next estimate on the spread of the fire comes at 3:34 p.m., when Rogers reports the fire is at 10 to 15 acres.

D

5:01 p.m., Rogers reports the fire is at 100-plus acres and has transitioned to a running crown fire.

E

An Inter-Canyon firefighter positioned on Kuehster Road reports at 5:32 p.m., “losing structures” south of Broadview Circle. The fire then travels northwest along Kuehster.

F

6:35 p.m.

Inter-Canyon firefighters report structures on Rocky Top Trail are fully involved in fire. The fire continues northwest, along Kuehster Road, with some spot fires on the north side of the road.

Source: Jefferson County sheriff’s investigative report and Denver Post interviews

a round of golf.

Schneider had called 911 the week before after seeing smoke from the controlled burn. This time, he called 911 again and said he was told no evacuations were in place.

“Down there,” Schneider said, “they knew they had a problem. But they weren’t going to tell anybody because then they were in trouble.”

Meanwhile, Inter-Canyon firefighter Dave Brutout was driving up and down Kuehster Road urging residents to leave, even though an official order was still several minutes away. The winds were roaring atop the ridge, a sustained 60 mph, Brutout told investigators, according to a report. He couldn’t hold his helmet on his head.

Brutout said he spoke with Sam Lucas, who said he was packed up but wanted to turn on his home’s fire-suppression system before leaving. Brutout tried to talk to Appel. But there was a chain across her driveway, and he moved on. By the time the firefighter reached Schneider’s house — Schneider estimated it to be about 5 p.m. — the moment to evacuate safely had already passed, unbeknown to everyone.

Down below, the first formal request for evacuations came at 4:41 p.m., ac-

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cording to an investigative report. The emergency notification system, which a glitch prevented from going to all residents in the evacuation zone, came just after 5 p.m. At 5:12, North Fork Fire Chief Curt Rogers estimated the blaze would reach the homes above within two hours, according to the report.

It reached Andy Hoover’s back door in 13 minutes.

Hoover was racing around in his home, pulling furniture away from windows, when the light outside went black. Then, his windows glowed orange. Heat filled the home. Flames were lapping at his house, and there was no place for him to go.

“I could just feel radiated heat,” Hoover said. “It was just like in front of an open oven.”

“I sort of understood that I might not make it out of this mess.”

Down the road, Eddie Schneider was having the same thought.

He and his wife had left their house about 5:15 p.m. — less than 15 minutes after receiving the evacuation call — but went back to get one last thing.

Leaving again, the fire closed around them.

Smoke enveloped their vehicle. The only way Schneider could see where he was going was to look down at the ditch

8:17 p.m. – Firefighters determine Ann Appel’s home on Broadview Circle is a total loss.

8:33 p.m. – Firefighters find Linda Lucas’ body and report the couple’s home on Eagle Vista Drive is a total loss.

The information listed above was derived from various sources to assist with determining the spread of the fire. The times obtained during witness interviews are approximated.

Severiano Galván and John Ingold, The Denver Post

beside the road and make sure not to drive into it. Embers flew by. Trees lit up like torches beside the road.

His neighbors — Kim Olson and Doug Gulick, who videotaped their escape — were just in front of him to start. Foster was a couple minutes up ahead.

“You had to leave with the clothes on your back, and that was it,” Schneider said.

Schneider and his wife drove anxiously until they burst out of the plume and into the sunlight.

Meanwhile, Hoover was desperately fighting to save his house. The front of flames outside the home had passed, but a residual fire burned on his deck.

The inner panes of windows were broken.

He called his wife, Jeanie.

“I don’t know what the hell’s going on,” he said, “but there’s sparks everywhere; there are flames; it’s hot.”

He tried to douse the deck fire, but it was too hot outside. The power was out. He went down to the garage, climbed into his pickup and smashed straight through the garage door.

Outside, he drove until he found a safe spot in an open area and watched as his house burned.

“I think I’m going to hang out here

Online. Previous coverage of the Lower North Fork fire, including video of residents fleeing the blaze and photo galleries of the scene. »denverpost.com/extras

until I know a better idea,” he told a dispatcher in a 911 call. “It seems like a dumb idea to move.”

A long way from closure There are multiple ongoing investigations into the causes of the Lower North Fork fire and the response to it.

Exactly when the fire reached Ann Appel’s and the Lucases’ homes has not been determined, nor have their causes of death. Throughout the day, neighbors had been in regular contact with the three. Appel and the Lucases had said as late as 5 p.m. that they were on the verge of evacuating.

That they didn’t survive the panicked escape that their neighbors did has only stirred the community’s anger over the fire. Elk Creek Fire Chief Bill McLaughlin’s admission that evacuations should have come at least an hour earlier hasn’t soothed, either.

Instead, residents say they hope officials will be held accountable, that amends will be made. Only that — and time — can piece the community back together.

“I still have a nice view, for 70 miles around,” said Schneider, whose house was the only on his street to survive.

“But when I look down, I’m living in a little piece of hell. It’s black. And that will take a while.”

John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com

COLO. SKIER VISITS FALL 9.8 PERCENT

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ICONIC SCI-FI WRITER Ray Bradbury, left, wrote classics “Fahrenheit 451,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and “The Martian Chronicles.” » 19A

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Comics guru weighs in on superheroes, life lessons »1C

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chance of storms E81° F57° »22A B © the denver post B $1 price may vary outside metro denver

66

In memoriam: Reporter Colleen O’Connor remembers literary icon Ray Bradbury. »blogs.denverpost.com/artmosphere

I NVESTI G ATI ON OF C SAP T E ST S

Principal out over cheating Beach Court: 2 years of results tossed as administrators likely changed answers

Hallett: “Technical errors” in how tests were handled, but no sign of wrongdoing

By Karen Augé The Denver Post

ANALYSIS

Secrecy, leaks stir quandary for U.S.

By Scott Shane The New York Times

washington» In recent years, the United States has pioneered the use of two innovative weapons, drones and cyberattacks, that by many accounts have devastated al-Qaeda and set back Iran’s nuclear effort.

Now those programs are at the heart of a bipartisan dispute over secrecy, with congressional Republicans accusing the Obama administration of leaking classified information for political advantage and Democrats lodging their own protests about high-level disclosures.

Prompted in part by recent articles in The New York Times on the use of drones to carry out targeted killings and the deployment of the Stuxnet computer worm against the Iranian nuclear program, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees issued a joint statement Wednesday urging the administration “to fully, fairly and impartially investigate” the disclosures and vowing legislation to crack down on leaks.

“Each disclosure puts American lives at risk, makes it more difficult to recruit assets, strains the trust of our partners and threatens imminent and irreparable damage to our national security,” said the statement, a rare show of unity.

The protest focused on the dangers of leaks that the congressional leaders said would alert adversaries to U.S. tactics.

But secrecy, too, has a cost — one that is particularly striking in the case of drones and cyberattacks. Both weapons raise pressing legal, moral and strategic questions of the kind that, in a democraSECRECY » 7A

DENVER & THE WEST

NO REGRETS FOR INTERROGATION U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn says he does not believe that anyone should apologize to an activist who was questioned by police about child pornography after she brought a professional photo of a child taking a bath in polluted water to a congressional hearing. »4A

THE HAYMAN FIRE | 10 YEARS LATER

FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE

Prescribed blazes and thinning haven’t worked, so commanders increasingly favor — if people aren’t at risk — letting forests burn

Cheating on standardized tests was deliberate, spanned all grades that were tested and was likely carried out by administrators at Beach Court Elementary in northwest Denver, investigators announced Wednesday. Their report also cleared a second school of wrongdoing.

As a result of the investigation, all of Beach Court’s 2010 and 2011 CSAP scores have been invalidated, the state Department of Education announced.

The state report concluded that “testing violations occurred at the Principal-level at Beach Court during the 2010 and 2011 CSAPs.” Beach Court principal Frank Roti, who had been the district’s shining example of a school leader who lifted disadvantaged students to unparalleled achievement, has been fired.

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg said Roti has been asked to return thousands of dollars in bonuses he received as a reward for the school’s stellar performance on CSAP tests. Roti could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Boasberg said the investigation findings “clearly show that no teachers at Beach Court were involved in altering tests.”

Last month, DPS asked the state to conduct an independent audit of test scores at Beach Court Elementary and Hallett Fundamental Academy — and to look into isolated scoring anomalies at three other unnamed DPS schools.

That request followed the district’s own intensive review, and an initial consultation with the Department of CSAP » 6A

B ID TO HEL P S M A L L B IZ

Denver-backed “cash mob” pays call on book shop

By John Mossman The Denver Post

Tom Pryor, crew leader for the Larimer County Youth Conservation Corps, makes final cuts before felling a large, dead tree. The crew was performing fire-mitigation work in and around Brainard Lake, near Ward. At top, smoke rises from the 2002 Hayman fire, which burned 214 square miles in Park, Teller, Jefferson and Douglas counties. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post; Craig F. Walker, Denver Post file (top)

By Bruce Finley The Denver Post

A

decade-long move toward prescribed fires and forest-thinning has not reduced the risk of catastrophic wildfires along the Front Range, federal and state authorities say.

And firefighting commanders increasingly favor letting more forests burn — if people aren’t threatened — instead of mounting all-out assaults. They say it’s smarter to let some fires burn naturally because this can help prevent huge fires that ruin forest seed stocks and watersheds.

“We haven’t even begun to see the worst of the worst,” said Ken Kerr, the Bureau of Land Management’s senior officer in the federal command center west of Denver. “Until we start finding ways to treat more forests to avoid the catastrophic conflagrations, we’re going to have problems. We can either pay now or we can pay much more later.”

The problem is that enormous, super-hot wildfires — epitomized by the Hayman fire of 2002, which ravaged 214 square miles in Park, Teller, Jefferson and Douglas counties — flare up more frequently to correct the imbalances caused by disruption of natural fire cycles.

Human suppression of wildfires since the

Coming Friday. Residents reflect on how the Hayman fire affected them.

INS I D E Business » 11-13A | Comics » 5-7C | Lottery » 2A | Markets » 12A | Movies » 4C | Obituaries » 19A | Puzzles » 5-6C

FIRE » 9A

Take the flash-mob phenomenon, give it a financial spin, and you have a “cash mob” — in which civic-minded citizens use social media to organize spontaneous visits by paying customers to small, local businesses.

Cash mobs, in which participants are typically asked to spend $20 or more at the selected business, began sweeping the country last year. Most are grassroots efforts, but the movement recently gained civic backing when the city of Denver helped organize one such effort.

Denver’s Office of Economic Development last month launched a cash mob to help celebrate National Small Business Week.

“There have been others in Denver, mostly through grassroots groups,” said Office of Economic Development spokesman Derek Woodbury. “Some chambers of commerce in other cities have done it, but not governments.”

MOB » 10A

6

the denver post B denverpost.com B thursday, june 7, 2012

NEWS «9A

FIRE: Risk of catastrophic blaze remains higher than ever FROM 1A

1860s has created overly dense forests ready to burn.

Despite the shift toward “treating” forests proactively with prescribed fires and mechanical thinning, federal data show that the number and size of wildfires are growing.

Colorado’s 30 largest wildfires on record broke out after 1996, with 77 percent after 2002, the data show. The 397,607 acres burned in wildfires since 2008 are more than double the 167,608 acres burned during the previous four years. A state analysis found that the number of fires reported each year has tripled since the 1990s.

Drought, beetle-killed pine trees and people in forests enable easier ignition.

Federal and state agencies must suppress wildfires that threaten people and property.

U.S. taxpayers have devoted as much as $1.9 billion a year to snuff wildfires. In a single recent season, air tankers dropped more than 420,000 gallons of fire-retardant on Colorado wildfires.

A recipe for bigger fires Yet each suppressed fire sets up bigger fires in the future.

“We’d like to see more resources devoted to a proactive approach — forest thinning and appropriate prescribed fires as a management tool,” said deputy chief forester Joe Duda of the Colorado State Forest Service.

“You’re forced into doing suppression because you have to react to fires where there’s property and watershed at risk.”

Colorado’s shift to forest thinning and prescribed fires was just beginning when U.S. Forest Service employee Terry Barton ignited the Hayman on June 8, 2002.

Federal agencies were developing a first “national fire plan” that recognized wildfires’ role in keeping forests healthy.

The unprecedented 2002 fire season that included the Hayman — which destroyed 600 buildings and darkened skies from Vail to Burlington — spurred this shift.

Since then, the amount spent annually on forest thinning and prescribed fires in Colorado has increased to $28.9 million last year from $18.3 million in 2001, according to data provided by Paul Langowski, Forest Service regional chief for fuels and fire ecology.

The number of prescribed fires increased to 236 last year from 73 in 2002. Forest crews last year treated nearly 50,000 acres statewide by thinning or prescribed fires, up from 32,525 acres in 2001.

But the risk of catastrophic wildfire remains higher than ever along the Front Range.

For lack of funds, Langowski said, forest-fuels reduction crews prioritize “interface” areas where communities abut public forests. In Colorado, there are 94,739 residences built on 2,000 square miles of private land that is next to forests, a Headwaters Economics analysis found.

Suppression dominates Meanwhile, suppression still dominates Colorado’s overall approach to wildfire. Firefighters since 2002 have extinguished 15,809 fires 100 acres and bigger statewide, limiting the area burned to about 1.5 million acres, National Interagency Fire Center records show.

The annual cost of putting out wildfires, most of them in the West, exceeds $1 billion. Nearly $11 billion was spent since 2002 to stop wildfires.

All this leaves fire managers in the federal command center on edge as they monitor a widening Western drought, 354 square miles burning in New Mexico’s Gila wilderness and the potential for explosive breakouts in the urban-wildland interface.

The prospect of hundreds of new homes and shops means even more suppression may have to be done. While insurers increasingly require use of nonflammable roof materials and clearing of “defensible spaces,” the availability of insurance allows development. If homes burn, they can be rebuilt.

“We’re just coddling and en-

abling people as long as we allow them to keep building in this situation,” said Bill Ott, the U.S. Forest Service operations director in the center.

Meanwhile, community resistance to prescribed fire — which costs far less than manually thinning forests using chain-saws and heavy machinery — complicates efforts to reduce forest fuels.

On March 22, a 50-acre prescribed fire southwest of metro Denver was part of the forest treatment push — and it escaped. Winds whipped the blaze out of control, creating the 4,140-acre Lower North Fork fire, which killed three residents at their homes. Gov. John Hickenlooper initially banned all prescribed fires. He later ordered state public safety officials to take charge of controlled burns by the Colorado

State Forest Service.

People living in and around forests now must deal with worsening threats in many areas. Some see the bone-dry, beetle-killed pines and worry about how they’d escape.

Those who experienced the destruction of the Hayman and other big fires also are grasping the slowness of recovery when forests are essentially sterilized, said Carol Ekarius, director of the Coalition for the Upper South Platte.

Natural healing process Coalition volunteers are toiling to try to accelerate natural healing processes on the Hayman burn area. They’ve planted nearly 1 million trees and seeded 17,000 acres where ponderosa seeds were ruined.

And still they see barren mountainsides eroding, chok-

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Federal land managers also changed their classification system for wildfires in 2009 so that a single fire no longer must be designated only as a fire that can be allowed to burn or a fire that must be suppressed. The new system lets fire managers attack one part of a wildfire that threatens people while more easily letting other parts of that same wildfire burn.

For example, federal managers last month merely monitored the lightning-sparked Little Sand fire in wilderness north of Durango. But when wind patterns changed, driving

Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700, twitter.com/finleybruce or bfinley@denverpost.com

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the fire toward the second of two concentric circles on their map, commanders called in air tankers and ground crews to try to guide the wildfire away from people and private property near Pagosa Springs.

Nobody is willing to risk firefighters’ lives on the big fires, Kerr said. A dozen or so firefighters still die each year despite stricter safety protocols.

One was incinerated when flames engulfed his vehicle on initial attack on the Coal Canyon fire in South Dakota in August.

“We’ve come to the realization that losing a house, losing some trees, is not worth losing some kid’s life,” Kerr said. “We are evaluating the risks.”

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ing off streams, Ekarius said.

“If we had had fires that were the historic kind in these ponderosa forests, it would not take this long to regenerate. The forest ecosystem was so out of kilter,” she said. “It’ll be a lot cheaper for us to treat, to reduce the threat and the intensity of fire.

“Hayman was a very large, very hot fire that burned on highly erosive soils. When you add very large, very hot and very erosive together, you get a fire that takes a very long time to heal.”

In the end, natural fire cycles may be reasserting themselves faster than people can reduce forest fuels.

The trend toward larger, more-destructive wildfires has forced firefighting commanders to adjust tactics, Ott of the Forest Service said. “We’re go-

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66

Home front: Learn more about the lives of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. »americanhomecomings.com

DENVER & THE WEST

FIRE FLARES IN LARIMER

TWO SIDES OF PRINCIPAL HARD TO RECONCILE

A fast-spreading wildfire west of Fort Collins on Saturday quickly grew from 2 acres to 5,000 acres. “This is the fire we always worried we might have,” Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said. »1B

It’s hard to reconcile the man Beach Court Elementary families say knew all his students by name with investigators’ depiction of Frank Roti sitting alone in his office with an eraser and a pencil and secretly doctoring the answers to hundreds of CSAP tests. »1B

ARTS & CULTURE Karl Gehring, The Denver Post

REVERSE 911 CALLS

NEW NOTES

How the Colorado Symphony Orchestra saved itself and is moving forward with an aggressive plan to change its image. »1E

Escaping addiction Trevor McCorkle, left, sipping his daily dose of methadone, and his younger brother, Jarrod, represent a disturbing demographic trend:

Heroin use is on the rise, and users are getting younger.

By Claire Martin, Photo By Joe Amon The Denver Post

NATION & WORLD

EUROPE VOWS $125 BILLION TO AID SPAIN Spain asked for help for its cash-strapped banks, and European finance ministers promise a hefty capital bailout. »19A

There was a brief pause on the other end when therapist Kevin Bert answered the phone at Synergy, a Denver substance-abuse treatment program for adolescents. ¶ Did Synergy take on heroin addicts who were under age 18? What if the addicts didn’t have any money? ¶ The caller was Trevor McCorkle, a rangy, restless 17-year-old. He and his brother, Jarrod, one year younger, were living at a makeshift campground near a Safeway store in Evergreen. Both were addicted to heroin. They wanted to stop and needed help. It was early April 2010. ¶ Bert was stunned. Come over today, he told Trevor. Then he called his supervisor, Elizabeth Whitmore. You won’t believe this, he told her. We just got a call from two teenagers who want to get into methadone treatment.

HEROIN » 18A

Flaws hinder alerts Officials struggle with data glitches and homes that rely on cellphones.

By Eric Gorski and Jennifer Brown The Denver Post

Emergency alert systems designed to warn Coloradans about wildfires, gunmen on the loose and other dangers are full of holes — limited by flawed data, human error and spotty efforts to get residents without telephone land lines to register their cellphone numbers.

The Lower North Fork fire in March was a tragic example of how alerts sometimes don’t work as planned. A still-unknown number of Jefferson County households failed to get warning calls because of a data glitch.

CALLS » 20A

dp On alert. Previous coverage of emergency-system issues. »denverpost.com

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6

A typical success rate for emergency of numbers dialed, meaning it’s «

FROM 1A

The wildfire killed three people, including one woman who should have received a call to evacuate but did not.

As a result of the breakdown, Jefferson County’s 911 agency is preparing to seek bids for improving its system, which officials said could include replacing its current provider, FirstCall Network Inc. A closer look at 911 reverse-dialing across the Front Range found a true patchwork, with thousands of disconnected or no-longer-in-service phone numbers in databases that are updated every few months.

Emergency authorities acknowledge they could improve by taking more control from private companies to run their systems, updating phone numbers more frequently or sending postcards to residents urging them to sign up their cellphone numbers. Still, they said, massdialing systems are unlikely to ever reach everyone in a danger zone.

A typical success rate for emergency mass-dialing is about 50 percent of numbers dialed, meaning it’s likely thousands of people are missed, according to a Denver Post review of hundreds of pages of reports released by emergency communications agencies through the Colorado Open Records Act. In Pueblo, for example, calls made by the notification system reached fewer than half of the 47 households authorities wanted to warn last August about a SWAT operation involving a barricaded suspect. Six of the numbers were for fax machines.

An El Paso County report shows authorities were able to confirm reaching 452 people out of 3,869 they were trying to alert about a missing child last October. A vast majority of the calls went to voice mail, so it’s possible those residents eventually heard the warning. But 715 of the numbers were invalid, and 751 rang with no answer.

In Larimer County, however, disconnected numbers are not an issue because officials continually update their data and take charge of some responsibilities that other agencies farm out. Still, even though the system does not dial disconnected numbers, Larimer County officials acknowledge that there are many homes for which they have no accurate number.

“There is no magic bullet,” said Nelson Daza, senior manager of product innovation for Glendale, Calif.-based emergency alert provider Everbridge, part of a growing $650-million-a-year industry. “There is no jurisdiction in this country that can tell you, ‘We have every phone number for every entity

Fire dispatcher Trey Lewis answers a call at the Adams County 911 office in Commerce City. County officials were surprised last fall when nearly three in 10 calls in its first activation of a new emergency alert system last fall did not get delivered because of disconnected phone numbers. ADCOM911 director Bill Malone said there is no way of knowing more about those numbers because phone carriers guard that information. Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post

and person, and we’ll be able to send a message to everybody in our areas should something happen.’ ” The systems are only as good as their data. And in a wireless society, emergency authorities are frustrated that privacy laws and other logistics, such as cellphone owners not necessarily being anywhere near their home address, mean that wireless phone companies don’t share their databases.

Reverse-dialing warning systems aren’t capable of sending alerts — calls, texts or e-mails — to cellphones unless a person registers the number with the county’s emergency management office. This has been slow to catch on across Colorado, even as

more people cancel their land lines in favor of using mobile phones only.

Of 525,000 adults in El Paso and Teller counties, about 13,000 have registered their cellphones to receive emergency alerts. And in Boulder County, home to 225,000 adults, just 12,925 have registered their mobiles, according to county officials. In Pueblo County, adult population 119,000, 717 people have registered cellphone numbers.

“Seven-hundred-seventeen is a low number,” said Tim Nawrocki, communications manager for the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office. “And in this day and age, everybody has got cellphones.”

A federal program that began rolling out in April will make it possible for lo-

cal authorities to send a message to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will then send alerts to mobile phones in the target area from nearby cell towers. The joint program of FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission works on most cellphones, but cooperation between federal and local emergency officials has not yet been established, said Brian Josef, director of regulatory affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association.

Most large-scale 911 reverse-call systems are managed by county-based 911 authorities who work with several public safety agencies, from big sheriff’s offices to tiny rural volunteer fire departments.

The 911 agencies have contracts to

obtain numbers and addresses from land lines and Internet-based phone services.

The phone and address information is then geo-coded — taking the address and assigning latitude and longitude — and placed into mapping systems. Depending on the jurisdiction, cellphone, e-mail and other information volunteered by citizens is included.

How often that information is updated varies. The land-line phone number database for El Paso and Teller counties is updated four times each year with information from Comcast and CenturyLink; the county’s cellphone database updates nightly.

CALLS » 21A

EMERGENCY-NOTIFICATION SYSTEM

Jeffco officials looking to solicit bids for another company to handle evacuation calls The county and FirstCall disagree on how several homes in the path of a recent fire were overlooked.

By Eric Gorski The Denver Post

golden» Jefferson County officials are moving to overhaul their emergency-notification system after several homes in the path of the deadly Lower North Fork fire did not receive evacuation calls.

Although details are still being worked out, the Jefferson County Emergency Communications Authority hopes to put the project out to bid by

the end of this month, said executive director Jeff Irvin.

When evacuation orders went to 900 homes in unincorporated Jefferson County, homes with Morrison addresses were wrongly plotted in the center of the town of Morrison and did not get alerted, Irvin said.

He said the glitch impacted 95 homes in the county, but not all were in the fire zone. Irvin said he believes a much smaller number failed to get the call but

does not know the specific number.

Among those never alerted was 51year-old Ann Appel, who, worried about smoke drifting over her house, had called 911 earlier in that day. Appel’s home burned to the foundation.

Her remains were later found inside.

FirstCall president Matthew Teague said his system did not fail.

“The thing is, it was a data issue and the next vendor is going to have the same data to deal with,” Teague said.

“Incorrect data is incorrect data. It was not our data. It was given to us.”

Irvin, however, said county officials thought FirstCall should have caught that sort of problem: “We were under

the assumption the service provider would make sure the data was accurate.”

Jefferson County officials worked with Baton Rouge, La.-based FirstCall to make sure the information in the system is accurate.

Even so, at its last meeting, the 911 authority’s governing board approved moving forward with a plan to strengthen the system.

Currently, the authority provides data from hard-line phones, Internetbased phones and its citizen opt-in program to FirstCall, which then processes the data and does the geocoding, or mapping.

Irvin said the board is considering

hiring a separate company to handle that task, leaving the actual alert system to another firm. The authority also wants to hire someone to audit its data for accuracy.

The Jefferson County Emergency Communications Authority signed a three-year contract with FirstCall last year. Irvin, however, said the authority believes it can part ways with the company at any time. He added that the company has been cooperative in trying to ensure the system works properly.

Eric Gorski: 303-954-1971, egorski@denverpost.com or twitter.com@egorski

CROSSING THE LOCH

Egypt official accused

lair Marquis holds the Olympic Torch on Loch Ness, Scotland, during Day 22 of the Torch Relay on Saturday. The torch tradition will end at London’s Olympic Park next month.

cairo» Egyptian prosecutors intend to investigate an ultraconservative lawmaker whom police say was caught in his car “violating public decency” with a woman, the state news agency reported.

He denies the allegation and Islamists say the case is aimed at defaming them ahead of upcoming presidential runoff elections.

The incident, widely reported in local media, comes at a crucial time for Islamists rallying behind Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi, who is set to

B

Danny Lawson, The Associated Press

Ready, set, Games.

Athletes gear up for the London Olympics. »8C

By The Associated Press

face former regime figure and ex-military man Ahmed Shafiq in a June 16-17 vote.

The allegations are especially controversial for ultraconservative Salafi Muslims, who advocate a strict interpretation of Islam and the segregation of unrelated men and women.

The accused lawmaker and sheikh, Ali Wanees, ran for parliament on a coalition led by the Salafi-led Nour Party, which controls 25 percent of parliament. Salafi leaders are backing Wanees, calling the police report “fraudulent.”

He could not be immediately reached for comment.

Sunday

66 section B

june 10, 2012 B denverpost.com B the denver post

DENVER & THE WEST POT PATIENTS LOSE

WILL CITED IN DEATHS

The state Supreme Court lets stand a ruling that medical-marijuana patients are protected from criminal prosecution but that they do not have a right under the state constitution to the use of pot. » 2B

Sources: Man angered by being snubbed »3B

Tuition rate move a risk for Metro St. Aiding illegal immigrants may help raise U.S. grants and legislators’ ire.

A variety pack of medicinal marijuana is shown at Herb’s Medicinals in Berthoud. AAron Ontiveroz, Denver Post file

A Colorado jewel You can drive or hike the rims to see the beauty of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison park. »denverpost.com /mediacenter

High Park fire

Dry heat fuels blaze; residents evacuated

By Anthony Cotton The Denver Post

Metropolitan State College of Denver’s controversial decision last week to establish a new tuition rate for illegal-immigrant students is a calculated gamble that carries some risk of alienating members of the state legislature.

But the move also presents an opportunity for the school to assert its independence and access a sizable new pool of federal money that could help it replace everdwindling state education funding.

“We’re doing exactly what we’ve been given the authority to do by the legislature — to be flexible enough to generate revenue streams that work for us,” said Stephen Jordan, president of Metro State.

Right now, 18 percent of Metro’s 24,000 students are Latino. If that number climbs to 25 percent, the school would be in line to be named a Hispanic Serving Institution. While it currently gets about $16 million in federal funds, the HSI designation would enable Metro to increase that amount to somewhere around $35 million, just about what it received in state funding this year, Jordan said.

METRO » 6B

RACE » 6B

2012 elections. Keep up with the latest national and Colorado campaign news. »blogs.denverpost.com/thespot

Rd.

Roosevelt National Forest County

Rd

70

LAPORTE

Evacuation area as of Saturday evening

Denver 25

COLORADO

N

FORT COLLINS

5 miles

25

27

Following attacks slamming Republican Rep. Mike Coffman as a right-wing “extremist,” the twoterm congressman is pushing back.

As he rolled out the announcement of senior campaign staff last week, Coffman used the opportunity to peg his Democratic challenger, Joe Miklosi, as a candidate running for Congress with a slew of Washington-hired staffers calling the shots for his campaign.

Coffman’s announcement featured an audio clip from a recent meeting, in which Miklosi said of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: “They’re paying for my staff. I have people in my office, I don’t even know who they are.”

For weeks, Miklosi — aided by the DCCC — has competed in the 6th Congressional District contest with a strategy centered on defining the incumbent as out of touch with the newly realigned, and more Democrat-friendly, district.

Buckhorn

an st C yo n Rd. Ri

d. yR

By Kurtis Lee The Denver Post

Old Flowers Rd.

Map area

Evacuation center at Cache La Poudre Middle School

nt

Both sides work to label the other in unflattering images, hoping to gain in their battle for Congress.

14

u Co

Coffman, Miklosi paint ugly

Zachary Brumley, 12, of Windsor, standing at the intersection of Larimer County Road 27 and Colorado 14, photographs smoke billowing from the fastburning High Park wildfire Saturday. The fire grew from 2 acres to 5,000 acres during the day Saturday. Karl Gehring, The Denver Post

Larimer County

. 43 34

287

Weld County LOVELAND

34

The Denver Post

By Erin Udell and John Ingold The Denver Post

laporte» Larimer County officials said late Saturday they were worried that a 5,000acre wildfire 15 miles west of Fort Collins was burning away from wilderness and toward more homes and Poudre Canyon.

The High Park fire, first reported as a 2acre blaze Saturday morning in the Paradise Park area, exploded Saturday afternoon.

Hundreds of emergency notices were sent urging residents to flee, but officials fear that some people never got the warning.

“This is the fire we always worried we might have,” said Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith at a news conference Saturday night.

The fire had burned at least 10 structures,

but because they had been viewed only from the air, officials weren’t sure whether the structures were homes or outbuildings.

There was no containment Saturday evening. Helicopters and air tankers joined a ground crew of about 200 in the fight. Federal fire teams are expected to take charge of the fight today, officials said, when the blaze will be designated Type One — the highest firefighting priority.

The fire had jumped Stove Prairie Road in three spots and was burning to the east of Rist Canyon and moving fast. Smith said authorities expected the blaze to reach Poudre Canyon today.

Evacuation notices were sent to 733 phones in numerous areas, but some of those people could not be reached. Deputies went FIRE » 3B

Questions. The Larimer County High Park fire

Photos. See a slide show of the images from the High Park fire.

information line is 970-498-5500.

Latest. Fire updates »denverpost.com/breakingnews

»denverpost.com /coloradophotos

Send us your photos.

»youpost.denverpost.com/submit-your-photos

Principal a man of contrasts Frank Roti’s dedication as educator clashes with accusations of altering CSAP answers

By Karen Augé and Jessica Fender The Denver Post

Starting out his career in St. Louis, Frank Roti was an ambitious rock star of a teacher who got a police commendation for searching school lockers after a bomb threat.

As principal at Beach Court Elementary School in northwest Denver, Roti learned other kids were making fun of the ratty, torn-up shoes Lori Sanchez’s son wore to school, so he got the boy a new pair.

As the head of one of the state’s most successful schools year after year, Roti guarded his

privacy, despite being soughtafter by colleagues seeking the alchemy of his achievement.

With Roti now disgraced, fired for allegedly changing students’ answers on standardized tests, and facing potential criminal charges as well as the loss of his professional license, it is hard to reconcile the man Beach Court families say knew all his students by name — and encouraged them to throw pies in his face as a reward for top performance — with investigators’ depiction of a man who sat alone in his office with an eraser and a pencil and secretly doctored the answers to hundreds of CSAP tests.

ROTI » 8B

Frank Roti, at podium, then principal at Beach Court Elementary, celebrates his school’s improved CSAP test results, which were recently alleged to have been altered, in August 2010 as DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg, left, applauds.

Craig F. Walker, Denver Post file

66

the denver post B denverpost.com B sunday, june 10, 2012

DENVER & THE WEST «3B

Deaths believed linked to woman’s will A son upset that a ranch was left to his nephew and not him is suspected of a murder-suicide.

By Kirk Mitchell The Denver Post

Deeply resentful that his elderly mother’s will favored his nephew over him, a Red Mesa man may have fatally shot and partially buried his nephew, slain his sister and then hanged himself, sources say.

“The will was read, and the ranch was left to the grandson and not the son,” said Christine Gillen, 78, a neighbor and close family associate. “The two men were feuding.”

William “Klatt” Decker, 69, allegedly shot his nephew Robert “Duke” Decker, 40, and killed his sister Billie Decker, 67, before hanging himself.

La Plata County sheriff’s spokesman Dan Bender confirmed the identities

of the bodies of the three that were discovered Friday and said the deaths were related. He didn’t comment further about the circumstances of the deaths.

Billie Decker lived in Durango. Klatt and Duke Decker lived on the ranch off Colorado 140 about a half mile north of the New Mexico border and 5 miles south of Red Mesa, Bender said.

The younger man lived in the homestead ranch house while his uncle lived in a mobile home near the La Plata river.

“It’s been such a tragedy to all of us,” Gillen said. “No one can even comprehend this.”

The Deckers bought the 120-acre farm in the 1940s. Gillen, who grew up in Red Mesa, said she taught Billie

Decker in the fourth grade.

After Billie Decker and her husband divorced, Duke went to live with his grandparents, William and Margaret “Maggie” Decker.

“She always had a tender spot in her heart for Duke,” Gillen said. “She coddled him very much.”

About 30 years ago when Maggie Decker’s husband, William, died, Christine Gillen’s husband, Ron Gillen, managed their farm with hundreds of head of sheep, Gillen said. Maggie would still move sprinklers and tended to the sheep and goats.

Neither Duke nor Klatt ever worked full time on the sheep farm. Duke was a welder, and Klatt moved back to the farm about five years ago.

Maggie Decker died April 6 at the age of 89.

“She was a free spirit with a generous heart, quick wit and keen sense of humor. She will always be remem-

bered. We love you, Maggie Decker,” her daughter Billie wrote in an obituary tribute.

Maggie Decker’s memorial service was May 5.

Though he did not own the land, Klatt continued living in the trailer on the farm. He resented that his nephew got the farm, Gillen said.

On Friday, Gillen’s son was stacking hay near the Decker farm when he heard a gunshot. Other neighbors also heard the bang.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to the Decker ranch to do a welfare check at 1:40 p.m.

They discovered the body of a man hanging in a barn, Bender said.

During their search of the farm, deputies saw a foot protruding from a shallow, freshly dug grave along a river bank.

“That area is sparsely populated,” Bender said. “Red Mesa has a few

churches, a general store and about 30 houses.

“It doesn’t have a red light. If you blink, it’s gone.”

Information found at the residence prompted investigators to do a welfare check on Billie Decker at her home in Durango, about 25 miles northeast of Red Mesa.

Durango police were investigating the woman’s death after her body was found.

“It is absolutely something that blows your mind away,” Gillen said.

Bender said autopsies will be performed today or Monday.

Bender said authorities are not looking for other graves.

“We don’t think there are any other victims,” he said.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, facebook.com/kmitchelldp or twitter.com/kmitchelldp

FIRE: Evacuation area expands with growth of blaze

«

FROM 1B

door to door to some residences. One deputy was forced back by flames in an area where residents were believed to be at home.

“I’m very concerned with some of the reports we got,” Smith said.

High temperatures and winds gusting up to 30 mph in Larimer County on Saturday afternoon fanned the flames and made fighting the blaze difficult.

Nick Christensen, executive officer for the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, said, “Obviously, the conditions today were very tough, very hot, windy conditions, steep conditions.”

One firefighter was sidelined because of heat exhaustion. No other injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire was undetermined.

The U.S. Forest Service said Saturday evening the uncontrolled blaze was burning in the crowns of trees and that its growth potential was high.

Resident Jim Key said he took his motorcycle out Saturday afternoon to look at the fire that was sending a plume of smoke over his Stratton Park subdivision. When he returned, he found sheriff’s deputies evacuating his neighborhood.

Though he and his wife have lived at their home for about two years, he said, this was their first wildfire evacuation.

“I think it’s precautionary more than anything,” he said hopefully. “But it’s been really erratic wind.”

Key and his wife said they planned to stay with friends Saturday night, but they checked in at the Red Cross evacuation shelter in LaPorte on Saturday hoping to learn more about the fire. As of late Saturday afternoon, no update had arrived. Key said he wished he had more information but understood that emergency officials were busy.

“A lot of things would have to line up on the bad side” for him to lose his house, Key said. “But then I don’t know all the information.”

Residents on Paradise Park Road, Moose Horn Lane, Magic Lane, Spencer Mountain Road, Old Flowers Road and Stove Prairie Road, north to Rist Canyon Road, were the first to be evacuated.

Later in the day, the entire Rist Canyon area, Wilderness Ridge Way, Rist Creek Road, Spring Valley Road and County Road 41, including all of the roads that run off of it, were added to the evacuation area.

According to the North Forty News, at about 3 p.m., flames were approaching the turnoff to Sky Corral Ranch, a historic dude ranch west of Bellvue that has been operating since the 1950s.

The flames were also just west of Stove Prairie Ranch, another historic ranch, along Old Flowers Road, the North Forty News reported.

In early evening, about 30 families had checked in at the Red Cross shelter, which was prepared to house 50 families if necessary, said American Red Cross of Northern Colorado executive director Erin Mounsey.

Mounsey, though, said most families who checked in were expected to spend the night with friends or family.

Ed Brown has lived in the area since 1997 and was given a pre-evacuation notice Saturday.

He evacuated during the 2001 Bobcat Gulch fire and last year’s Crystal fire, recalling, “When we were driving out, we had fireballs flying by us.”

“We’ve had a lot of fires this spring, and we’re not done,” he said.

Staff writer Joey Bunch contributed to this report.

Erin Udell: 303-954-1223 or eudell@denverpost.com

Smoke from the High Park fire rises above Old Flowers Road near Stove Prairie in Larimer County on Saturday. Doug Conarroe, North Forty News Guests from the historic Sky Corral Ranch race down smoky Old Flowers Road to escape the fire.

Doug Conarroe, Special to The Denver Post

Other Colorado wildfires

Leo Lopez loads possessions from the house of his sisterin-law Juana Jackson. Jackson is out of town on vacation and asked Lopez for help when evacuation orders were issued. The High Park fire in Larimer County exploded in size Saturday. Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post

• Ute Trail fire: Delta County residents who were evacuated during a 60-acre fire near Cedaredge were able to return around 9 p.m.

Friday as fire crews finished mopping up hot spots. A barn was destroyed.

• Eagle: A wildfire triggered when a shed in Eagle caught fire scorched 3 acres and threatened multiple mobile homes Friday night before it was extinguished. Later, another 3-acre

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fire Saturday evening briefly closed eastbound Interstate 70 a mile east of Wolcott.

• Little Sand fire: A wildfire burning near Pagosa Springs since May 13 covers about 7,200 acres and is still smoldering and creeping.

Archuleta County Emergency Management director Drew Peterson has told residents to expect smoke in the Upper Piedra area until the fire stops burning on its own.

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