Firefighters remove ‘fuel’ from the forest in Clear Creek

A team of wildfire firefighters with chainsaws and an industrial wood chipper headed up a mountain in Idaho Springs near the Forest Service building.

In front of them were thousands of dead and dying trees, along with the broken slash that covered the ground. Their mission that day was to “get it out,” Clear Creek Fire Wildland Coordinator Chad Martin said.

“This area has suffered from an infestation of mortality,” Martin said.

Members of the Clear Creek Fire Authority Wildland Firefighters worked themselves up the mountain from a walking and bike path south of I-70 on Aug. 1. Martin and CCCFF Caden Vogt hiked up the mountain with huge chainsaws balanced over their shoulders, cutting down everything in their way that was considered ‘fuel for a future fire’.

On the bike path, another wi