One year later, still no leads on cause of Calwood or Lefthand fires - Boulder Daily Camera

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One year after the Calwood and Lefthand fires tore through western Boulder County, officials still do not have a cause and said it is unlikely they ever will barring a new witness coming forward.

In February, Boulder County sheriff’s investigators released a report and were able to determine the Calwood Fire started within an area with a 500-foot radius, but no known cause could be established.

In an email last week, the sheriff’s office wrote, “Unless some new information or witness comes forward, we don’t anticipate that we will have a different outcome of the investigation.”

The Lefthand Fire, which started the next day, is still being investigated by the U.S. Forest Service.

Seth McKinney, the fire management officer for the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, said it is not that unusual for the cause of large wildland fires to go unsolved.

“Ultimately investigators are looking for concrete evidence of a start, and not just a start but how it started in an area that’s been ravaged pretty hard,” McKinney said. “Sometimes it’s been ravaged by the fire itself, other times it’s been ravaged by the suppression actions that follow.”

The only wildland fire in recent years to actually result in prosecution was the Cold Springs Fire in 2016, but the defendants in that case were spotted leaving the burn area and later admitted their role and were able to lead investigators to their campsite.

The cause of the Fourmile Fire in 2010 was determined to be a fire pit, and while the volunteer firefighter who started it did not initially think he had started the blaze, he was the first to call the fire in, giving investigators a good starting point.

Meanwhile, investigators suspect the Sunshine Fire was human-caused based on its location but never identified the specific cause.

“It is incredibly hard to find that concrete evidence,” McKinney said.

The Calwood Fire, the county’s largest fire in its history, started near the Cal-Wood Education Center off County Road 87 and burned 10,113 acres and destroyed 20 homes.

The Lefthand Fire, which investigators do not believe was started by the Calwood Fire, started a day later and burned a total 460 acres.

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One year later, still no leads on cause of Calwood or Lefthand fires - Boulder Daily Camera
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