May is Wildfire Awareness Month 

A crucial time to focus on wildfire preparedness. We encourage all residents and businesses to take steps to reduce risk—such as creating defensible space around your property and staying informed on fire safety practices. Let's work together to protect our community and environment this season. 

Learn about Wildfire Preparedness and what steps you can take to increase your resilience.

• Home Mitigation Measures

  • Vents - Properly screen your vents to prevent ember incursion. 

  • Defensible Space - Creating Defensible Space entails modifying the natural and introduced vegetation around your home to reduce fire hazard.

  • Smoke Alarms - Install and test your smoke alarms.  

  • Gutters: Regularly clean gutters and roofs to prevent debris buildup. 

  • Fences - Using non-combustible fencing/gates where they attach to the building reduces the opportunity of a burning fence or gate igniting the exterior of the structure.

  • Garage Doors - Learn how to manually open your garage door in case of a power outage.

  • Choose the right plants: Low-Flammability Landscape Plants; refer to the Colorado State University Extension fact sheet to learn more

  • Louisville has a new Fire Hardening Code – check out our website to learn more!

  Preparedness 

  • Create a Family Emergency Plan - Make sure people in your home now where, when and how to evacuate if the time comes. Create a designated meeting point. 

  • Sign up for Emergency Alerts - Visit BOCOAlert.org to sign up to receive emergency message about imminent threats and hazards by text message, email, and/or push notifications. 

  • Be extra cautious on Red Flag Days, when wildfire risk is highest due to dry, windy conditions. Avoid any activity that may produce a spark and start a wildfire. This includes no open burning, avoiding mowing operations or dragging chains, or operating any equipment that produces sparks or has open flames. 

Wildfire Preparedness Resources 

• City of Louisville 
  • Recovery & Resilience 
  • Open Space & Parks 
  • Police Department 
• Louisville Fire Protection District 
  • Risk Reduction Information
• Boulder County 
  • Wildfire Partners
    • Take advantage of the Wildfire Partners Community Chipping Program to safely dispose of tree limbs and vegetation. 
  • Office of Disaster Management 
• Regional & National
  • Colorado State Forest Service 
  • Colorado State Fire Prevention & Control 
  • Firewise USA

 Why are we having frequent power outages?

• Xcel Energy is the authorized utility provider responsible for the delivery of electrical power to Louisville residents and has implemented new strategies for wildfire mitigation, including “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” (PSPS), and associated protocols for how and when they implement a PSPS. 
• You can learn more about Planned Shutoffs on the Xcel website.

How can residents prepare for power outages? 

• Boulder Office of Disaster Management has developed a guide to preparing for power outages, specific to Boulder County residents, available on their website. 

Does the city have plans to send timely communications to residents during power outages? 

• If Xcel Energy implements a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS), or an unplanned widespread outage occurs, the City will work with Xcel to communicate the outage impacts to residents in a timely manner.  

• Xcel customers can check the status of their outage via Xcel’s outage map. If your power is out, but the outage does not show on the map, report an outage via Xcel’s website.
• As always, make sure you are signed up for BOCO Alerts in the event that a power outage becomes a community emergency. 
• For power outages impacting City facilities, or that are expected to last several days, the City will provide updates through the “City News/Important Updates” email/text list, among other channels such as social media and traditional media.  

Colorado Medical Assistance Programs

If you have a qualifying, existing medical condition, Xcel's Safe for Colorado program offers two kinds of support:

1. Help with your energy bills
2. Extra communications, through additional phone calls and emails, in the event of a planned Public Safety Power Shutoff or unplanned outage.

To participate, customers must successfully register in either the Medical Certification Program or Colorado Medical Exemption Program. Learn more about this program on Xcel Energy's website!