According to one state lawmaker, Colorado lacks the ability to respond to dangerous wildfires in a timely and efficient manner.

In order to better prepare the state for what some are predicting will be a difficult fire season, State Rep. Tom Wiens, R-Castle Rock, has introduced House Bill 1459, which would increase the ability of the state to deliver air support to battle blazes in their initial stages.

Noting that the state did not have any helicopters or single engine air tankers under contract to assist firefighters in the critical first few hours of the Overland, Cherokee Ranch or recent Picnic Rock fires, Wiens stated, “Colorado cannot afford to miss opportunities to properly battle fires immediately after they begin. We simply cannot allow that to happen.”

The bill, which has 47 cosponsors in the House, would ensure the availability of resources by clarifying the governor’s responsibility for the delivery of air assets to local firefighters in the initial stages of wildfires. It would also require the state to have the ability to deliver at least one single engine air tanker within one hour after the request is made by a county sheriff or municipal fire department to the Colorado State Forester or at least one helicopter within three hours after such a request.

“We need to send our firefighters into battle with the best possible support and resources,” Wiens said. “It is unacceptable that a state with such a large percent of its population living in the urban wild land interface area does not have more adequate methods to fight wildfires quickly after they begin.”

The bill also calls for the use of existing satellite technology to help predict potential hot spots for wildfires and to predict fire behavior. According to Wiens, such technology is currently used by 13 other states, and can accurately locate fires and help predict their behavior through satellite photography.

“Colorado is the satellite capital of the world,” Wiens said. “It is time that we put our technology to use fighting potentially deadly blazes. This bill will make that happen.”