2 Colorado counties roll out new evacuation alerts, sirens to help notify residents if wildfires spread

As Colorado continues to deal with heightened wildfire danger, Clear Creek and Jefferson counties are changing how they notify people when it's time to get out.

The counties have launched a new standardized evacuation system that includes updated evacuation terminology, a distinctive "Hi-Lo" siren and more precise evacuation maps designed to make emergency messaging clearer when every second matters. One of the biggest changes is the language emergency officials will use. Instead of the previously used "pre-evacuation" and "mandatory evacuation," residents will now be given an "Evacuation Warning" and "Evacuation Order."

"Those will be standardized across the Front Range and the metro area communities, too," Jenny Fulton, public information officer for Clear Creek County said. 

Fulton said an evacuation warning means people should be prepared to leave immediately, while an evacuation order means there is an immediate threat to life and it's time to leave.

"If you have animals that you need to help, get ready. If you have disabilities, you might consider evacuating even under a warning if you need that extra time," Fulton said. "A warning is get yourself ready, get your family ready. Be ready to leave at a moment's notice."

The counties have also equipped patrol vehicles with a new Hi-Lo evacuation siren. Unlike traditional emergency sirens, the alternating high-low tone will only be used during evacuation orders and will be paired with a recorded message telling residents to leave the area.

"When you hear high low, it's time to go," Fulton said.

The new siren is intended to supplement, not replace, deputies going door-to-door during evacuations.

"We don't know how many deputies are going to be on duty when we have to evacuate certain areas," Fulton said. "We don't know how large that evacuation area is going to be. So if we can't go door to door, this high-low siren will allow us to drive through neighborhoods making that announcement."

Emergency managers are also replacing the old radius-based evacuation system with neighborhood polygons that more closely match communities. Under the previous system, evacuation zones were often drawn using circles around a fire, sometimes leaving neighbors on opposite sides of a street under different alerts.

"It was a radius. It was, 'Let's do one mile. Let's do five miles from this location,'" Fulton said. "Now it's a matter of selecting which ones are we issuing a warning for, which ones are we issuing an order for."

Residents can use Clear Creek County's interactive evacuation map to determine which evacuation polygon they live in and better understand future alerts.

The changes are part of the Front Range Wildfire Initiated Community Conflagration Initiative, a regional effort to standardize emergency messaging across Colorado. Douglas County implemented the system earlier this year, while Boulder, Broomfield, Arapahoe and Gilpin counties are also working toward adopting the same terminology. Fulton said Summit and Eagle counties are among the mountain communities considering joining the effort.