Gov. Polis signed a suite of wildfire prevention and recovery-related bills Friday, clearing the way for the state to stand up a new emergency insurance plan, standardize fire-resistant building codes and buy a second $26 million firefighting helicopter.
Gov. Jared Polis signed a suite of wildfire prevention and recovery-related bills Friday, clearing the way for the state to stand up a new emergency insurance plan, standardize fire-resistant building codes and buy a $26 million firefighting helicopter.
The 11 bills were all passed during the 2023 legislative session, which ended Monday. They represent the legislature’s ongoing efforts to protect the state from wildfires, which Polis called a “year-round reality in Colorado,” nearly three years after the worst fire season in the state’s history and 18 months after the Marshall Fire swept through Boulder County.
The measures cover insurance, disaster preparedness and evacuation modeling, and the tinder and wildfire mitigation workforce. Flanked by fire officials, legislators and firefighting equipment, Polis signed the bills in four cities and towns across the Front Range. “Strategic investments on many different fronts is really what we need to be doing,” said Rep. Marc Snyder, a Colorado Springs Democrat who co-sponsored three of the bills signed Friday. “We’re looking at everything.”, which sets aside $26 million for the state to purchase a Firehawk helicopter. With Polis’s signature, the state is now set to double its Firehawk fleet, after the legislature spent $24 million on the first model in 2021.
The Firehawks will free Colorado from competing with other states to contract for temporary use of similar aircraft, Polis said from a Centennial aircraft hanger Friday, with the state’s solo helicopter looming behind him.Four of the bills signed in law Friday seek to help homeowners and residents rebuild and return to areas affected by wildfires or other disasters.
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