New technology and lessons from recent disasters have informed the latest iteration of the Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management’s wind-driven wildfire plan.

In some ways, the strategy is the same as it ever was, just with increasing urgency.

“You can’t wait – minutes matter,” said Andrew Notbohm, director of the PPROEM, told the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners in a presentation Tuesday.

The emergency agency covers dozens of jurisdictions and municipalities in El Paso and Teller counties, helping to coordinate responses to large-scale events. While wildfires are a fact of life in Colorado, the newest plan covers a specific, deadly type: wind-driven fires in the built environment.

Recent examples include the Los Angeles-area wildfires in January 2025, Hawaii’s Lahaina fire in August 2023 and the Camp fire in Northern California in November 2018.…