Hailey Wilmer/Colorado Daily

Hikers walk past a fire danger sign posted on Baseline near Chatautauqua Thursday afternoon. A county wide fire restriction will be going into effect at noon on Friday that prohibits open fires and the use of fireworks.

Due to a long string of consistently high daily fire danger ratings, the Boulder Country Sheriff's Office will begin enforcing restrictions on open fires and fireworks Friday at noon.

"There is a formula that is used to come up with the daily fire danger rating," said Boulder Country Sheriff Joe Pelle. "The formula involves the relative humidity, the temperature, the wind, and it also involves the fuel moisture content of thousand-hour fuels and light fuels like grasses."

Thousand-hour fuels, according to Pelle, are heavy fuels like logs and trees, which, in Boulder, are down to moisture levels of 10 percent -- a dangerously dry level when it comes to sustaining fires.

Light fuels, such as grasses and other small plants, are more of a threat when it comes to catching and spreading fires. According to Pelle, grasses are down into the low teens in their moisture content. (This is the fourth driest summer on record in Colorado state history, according to Pelle.) "It's extremely easy at this point for a fire to start, for it to carry, and if we have a fire it's going to grow into a large fire very quickly," said Pelle.

To make matters worse, Pelle told the Colorado Daily that a number of fire agencies Boulder can normally rely on for support and mutual aid have sent resources to California, meaning any fire breakouts would be even more difficult to contain.

Lastly, even though recent hurricane activity has shown some promise of bringing a steadier stream of precipitation to the Boulder area, the "monsoon pattern" -- featuring consistent, brief daily afternoon showers that help strengthen moisture content levels -- characteristic of Boulder summers have yet to settle in reliably.

"I was tired of waiting," said Pelle. "I kept waiting for the monsoons to set up and they just haven't. It takes an extended period of heat and dryness to put us into very high and extreme fire ratings and it takes a period of cooler, wetter, weather to pull us out. So, a little rain shower here and there is great, but it doesn't change the overall threat."

For most of Boulder's citizens both in rural and urban areas, open fires that are relatively small and well-maintained in campgrounds, firepits, grills, stoves, and fireplaces are not going to fall under the restrictions. Furthermore, the mostly agricultural methods of burning that do fall under the restrictions, such as ditch burning and slash piles, have already been completed by many of the farmers that practice burning tactics in season, according to Pelle.

Temporarily banning the use of fireworks, however, may hit a little close to home for some residents of Boulder County. The restriction on fireworks, however, is not without warrant, as fireworks are the number-one cause of wildfires in the month of July throughout the entire state of Colorado.

Pelle told the Colorado Daily that officers will be incorporating fire restriction enforcement into their regular patrols beginning today -- though he said most restriction alerts come from concerned neighbors.

According to the release, "Offenders may be punished by a fine of $500 for a first offense, with higher fines for subsequent offenses," but Pelle said that he prefers officers to enforce the restrictions through education and cooperative compliance rather than through writing tickets.

Contact Lance Vaillancourt about this story at (303) 443-6272, ext. 125, or vaillancourt@coloradodaily.com.