Westside Watch
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03/20/2026
🚨24 Fire has grown to 1,067 acres - evacuation alerts issued🚨
This fire is on the east side of 115 at the southern end of Fort Carson.
🚨 Westside Watch – Fire Preparedness & Community Update 🚨
📢 Please Share
👉 The more people we reach organically, the less we have to spend on paid outreach—and the more resources we can put directly into protecting our communities.
We get many emails with questions from citizens about evacuation planning. Our fire leadership has made one thing clear:
👉 When it comes to wildfire readiness… it’s on us.
🔥 Tools We Recommend (and use ourselves) with screenshots below:
📱 Watch Duty https://www.watchduty.org/
Available as a mobile app AND desktop website
Real-time wildfire updates, evacuation zones, and incident tracking
✅ You can sign up for alerts based on your location
🌐 InciWeb https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/
Official fire information from federal and state agencies
Best for confirmed updates, containment, and closures
👉 Use both for the best combination of speed + official information
📊 Evacuation Modeling – We’re Back At It
Hundreds of residents have already signed up for our evacuation time and mapping reports—and we are working again to deliver them.
🔗 Sign up here for evacuation times and maps: https://forms.gle/ZsMQCFKGvrGCSrgn9
We had hoped the City would provide this information directly to residents after purchasing the Ladris evacuation modeling software—a system we know very well and even provided input on.
Instead:
⚠️ The City continues to withhold access to the citizen portal
⚠️ They have refused to publish maps identifying safe areas
⚠️ Critical, life-saving information remains out of reach for the public
So—we are not waiting.
👉 We’re back to doing the work ourselves.
🎤 On the City’s Recent Press Conference
We also saw the City promote the national “Ready, Set, Go” program.
Let’s be clear:
⚠️ It's a national program started in 2004 - nothing new.
⚠️ Colorado Springs has been using it for over a decade.
⚠️ It does not address real evacuation constraints on the Westside
What our community needs is real data:
⚠️Evacuation times
⚠️Maps with safe areas identified
⚠️Impact of development on those times
⚠️That’s what we are focused on delivering.
🏔️ What Westside Watch Is Doing
👉 Neighbors helping neighbors. Supporting approximately 80,000 homes in El Paso County.
Recently, we helped residents outside Aspen stop a 5,000-acre development that would have trapped citizens and destroyed an elk wildlife corridor.
Currently, we are assisting Tri-Lakes residents regarding the Buc-ee’s proposal, where preliminary models show evacuation times increasing from an already dangerous 5+ hours to over 8 hours at a critical choke point. It's likely legal action will be needed. Please help our neighbors facing this dangerous development that is anticipated to add 27k cars/weekday and 40k cars/weekend at a critical chokepoint.
⚖️ Active Legal Efforts for Wildfire Safety
Arrowswest (near Garden of the Gods Park)
Ovation (near Pine Creek)
These cases are about protecting lives—not politics.
🤝 Neighborhood Legal Defense Fund. Our Neighborhood Defense Fund ensures:
👉 Anyone who calls for help can get it
Funded by citizens across Colorado
Built to respond when communities are at risk
💬 Please consider donating so we can continue to help others—and be there when you need it. http://spot.fund/rnqn7sc
❤️ Thank You
🧭 Stay Informed on Local Decisions
We also recommend tracking how decisions get made:
🔗 Sign up for CouncilWatch & the “Screw-o-Meter”: https://forms.gle/tDdCDNipEuW177bw9
👉 Transparency matters—and informed citizens make better decisions.
Thank you for staying engaged, informed, and willing to stand up for your community.
That’s what makes a great neighbor.
03/25/2025
URGENT: Dangerous Density ADU Hearing Tues. 3/25/2025. LAST CHANCE. Send an email. Speak up! -
Westside Watch A Wildland Urban Interface Coalition
Westside Watch Board Member John McLain sent this video of the GRIDLOCK from a small brush fire with NO EVACUATION ALERTS. We, and the evacuation experts, have argued for years that, during the Waldo Canyon Fire, where people narrowly escaped burning in their cars, the area was largely evacuated as it was Day 3 of the fire. Look at this, and imagine it's everyone home plus all the development that has been added. If they did the evacuation modeling, we would know the answer as to how long it takes to evacuate. We would know what the impact to the times of development have been and will be. We would know the chokepoints that need to be mitigated and/or manned, in advance of the chaos. As Dan Dallas, the type 1 IC who endorsed our Clearance Evacuation Time & Public Safety Ordinance the City ignored and rejected, "
"Mass Evacuations in the Boulder area Marshall Fire were a problem. They got lucky on timing and everybody got out, but this is why advanced evacuation modeling to identify and correct egress problems as well as reporting clearance times and maps with safe spots identified, in advance, is a wise approach. People should know how long it is going to take them to get out and have maps in these chaotic fires that are all too prevalent. We have been incredibly lucky - and luck is a dangerous bet to keep playing."
This video is from the intersection of Fillmore Rd and Mesa Rd heading west on Mesa Rd.
Here's the CET Ordinance we presented in 2021:
https://www.westsidewatch.org/the-cet-public-safety-ordinance
If you don't want 400 unit apartment complex at that location, donate to the lawsuit (we don't take a penny, but we cannot cover all the legal fees without donations, and this case will maintain the precedent we set in 2424). Tax donations to WW are deductible.
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=26LNK6SQMR5VY
Email Greg Cerbana, Government Affairs VP, and ask them to drop the lawsuit and make this area the Bighorn Sheep Research & Visitor Center as we suggested. It's a better use of the land and safer for the wildlife and neighborhoods.
03/13/2025
Westside Watch Board Member John McLain took these photos. He is also the Plaintiff in the lawsuit to stop the Arrowswest development at this same intersection and ended up on the Arrowswest property hillside.
We are also hearing I25 is gridlock. Imagine if this were a larger fire on higher winds. We must used the SCIENCE of evacuation modeling to gauge the impact of development and address the numerous chokepoints throughout the westside with times to clear an intersection for one car is12-16 minutes. It's unacceptable.
03/13/2025
We have been informed of the fire on the Arrowswest property behind Red Leg. In one of the many land use hearings we have stood with neighborhoods fighting, COS Fire Leadership argued, in a public hearing, that this area, in particular, is minimal risk due to the Waldo Canyon fire which, of course, is clearly not the case as we knew to be true at the time. This is also why we continue to demand for evacuation modeling, we could scrap the entire earth and cut down every trees, the structures are the problem fuels in dire fires -- all the matters then is evacuation egress. THIS IS WHY WE NEED EVACUATION MODELING. It's also why we filed the lawsuit to stop the Arrowswest development and suggested a better usage of a Bighorn Sheep Research & Visitors Center.
There is also a fire near the COS airport that is 3,000 acres already with mandatory evacuations.
Our thoughts are with all impacted, and, especially, our firefighters. We wish send them all the very best of thoughts.
03/10/2025
🚨 ATTENTION WESTSIDE RESIDENTS: STOP THE DANGEROUS DENSITY ADU ORDINANCE 🚨
🔴 A critical vote is happening Tuesday, March 11, 2025, at City Council. This ordinance will increase dangerous density in wildfire-prone areas. We need your help to spread the word—our resources are limited! Share this.
🔥 KEY FACTS:
▪ Evacuation times are already non-survivable. Most of the westside faces 8.5+ hour "blue sky" evacuation times—and that's with conservative estimates.
▪ Other communities are in crisis. We recently assisted a community outside Aspen facing 17-hour evacuation times.
▪ Science, not politics, should dictate safety. We must identify and fix evacuation chokepoints before adding more density.
▪ Chief Royal has the authority to stop this. State law allows objections based on public safety. Email him today and demand action!
📢 HOW YOU CAN HELP:
✅ SEND AN EMAIL—Use our sample email or write your own. Copy us and the media for transparency.
✅ SHOW UP & SPEAK OUT—Attend in person or call in remotely to make a public comment.
📞 CALL-IN INSTRUCTIONS:
📩 Email your name, phone number, and topic to: [email protected]
📞 Call: +1 720-617-3426 (United States, Denver – Toll)
📌 Enter Conference ID: 651 962 207 #
🔗 MORE INFO & SAMPLE EMAILS: Westside Watch – ADU Ordinance: https://www.westsidewatch.org/adus-dangerous-density
📢 STAY INFORMED! Sign up for our newsletter: https://us5.campaign-archive.com/?u=c494c9847500a66132d508b5e&id=b392fa5d2a
💰 DONATE TO HELP US FIGHT BACK!
Multiple lawsuits are underway to protect public safety. While our work is pro bono, we need funds to cover essential legal costs. Every dollar helps! Give here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=26LNK6SQMR5VY
⚠ Public safety should come before reckless development. Take action NOW to stop this dangerous Density ADU ordinance!
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