Colorado's Snyder Fire Kills Three Firefighters as Blazes Top 100,000 Acres

Three firefighters lost in a burnover on the Western Slope

Three federal wildland firefighters — Emily Barker, 38, of Michigan; Nick Hutcherson, 27, of Arizona; and Sydney Watson, 27, of Alabama — were killed Saturday when the Snyder fire overran their position along the Colorado-Utah border west of Grand Junction.denverpost +1 The crew, part of the Rifle Helitack unit, deployed emergency survival shelters as extreme winds drove the blaze across them; two colleagues who also sheltered survived with burn injuries and remained hospitalized in Denver as of Monday.denverpost Gov. Jared Polis issued a disaster declaration and ordered flags flown at half-staff at state buildings.cpr

The Snyder fire is the product of four merging blazes — Utah's Snyder Mesa and Jones fires and Colorado's Knowles and Gore fires — that combined into a single complex spanning roughly 30,215 acres by Tuesday evening, when crews achieved the first 10% containment on the perimeter.denverpost A serious accident investigation team is reviewing the circumstances of the deaths.coloradosun

Five simultaneous blazes, nearly 100,000 acres

The Snyder fire is one of at least five major simultaneous wildfires burning across Colorado, together charring nearly 98,000 acres as of Wednesday — roughly the land area of Denver.denverpost The Aspen Acres fire in Pueblo and Custer counties destroyed at least 155 structures and consumed more than 28,363 acres with zero containment, prompting new mandatory evacuations Wednesday morning.denverpost +1 The Ferris fire in the San Juan National Forest near Dolores surpassed 23,000 acres; the Gold Mountain fire north of Ouray leaped from 8,277 acres to nearly 15,000 acres in a single day of gusty winds; and the Willow fire, sparked Sunday near the Leadville fish hatchery, approached 2,000 acres.denverpost

FEMA authorized federal funds to cover 75% of eligible firefighting costs in southern Colorado, ruling that the Aspen Acres fire "threatened such destruction that it would constitute a major disaster."denverpost About 250 firefighters were working around the clock on that blaze alone, competing for limited aerial and ground resources stretched thin statewide.coloradosun

Record drought and a new agency's first fatalities

Fire officials attributed the explosive outbreak to record-low snowpack and months of heat and drought. "Currently across the state we are seeing unprecedented conditions," said Tim Ross, USFS incident commander at the Willow fire, noting that snowpack, alpine lake levels, and fuel moistures were at record lows across Colorado.coloradosun Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control Director Mike Morgan put it bluntly: "I don't believe in 'unprecedented' anymore. Every year it's getting worse and worse and worse."cpr

The deaths also mark the first line-of-duty fatalities under the newly created U.S. Wildland Fire Service, formed administratively under President Trump in January by consolidating multiple public-lands agencies — a structure that has faced congressional and legal challenges, and that came together after widespread federal layoffs.cpr Chief Brian Fennessy defended his crews at the Fruita command center: "They weren't being foolish, they weren't being careless. They were there because they thought they could do what needed to be done."cpr