Today’s wild-land fire can result in tomorrow’s flood.

Beulah residents lived through the aftermath of the Junkins fire in 2016 and the rushing flood waters that followed through its burn scar in 2017.

The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office’s Emergency Services Bureau is continuing to take precautions to prepare for the aftermath of a possible flooding of the burn scar that may bring more damage than the fire itself.

“We are concerned about the spring runoff this year. Once we get into the monsoons, there could be emergencies. A lot of that stuff has loosened up,” said Pueblo County Sheriff’s Emergency Services Bureau Chief Mark Mears.

“We could start seeing logs coming down from the Junkins Fire. We just have to monitor that.”

Flooding dangers from Junkins fire continue to have Pueblo County and the small town of Beulah on alert and new resources are being set in place to help.

The Pueblo County commissioners recently signed off on a grant letter with the Colorado Department of Public Safety to receive emergency funds to help flood mitigation and emergency tools.

In 2016, then-Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper declared a disaster emergency because of the Junkins Fire in Custer and Pueblo counties, which authorized use of the National Guard and funding for response and recovery.

The money awarded to the affected areas is $200,000 with no matching funds required. The grant agreement expired and the state has reissued a grant award letter to the county’s Emergency Services Bureau.

The county commissioners signed a resolution to extend the grant this week.

The money is being used to implement a flood warning system, which includes sirens, system gauges and blockades.

The town is installing five new flood sirens in the area of North Creek Road.

In addition to the new sirens, Mears said new automated traffic devices will be installed that will function much like railroad gates, lowering a physical barrier to block the road from travel.

Mears said the Beulah Fire Department is heading the project.

“The sirens are only going to be used specifically in the case of a flood or potential flood,” Mears said. “They can be set off to warn the folks in North Creek. They are set off by a radio.”

Fires have left the land without appreciable vegetation and those areas affected no longer can absorb the usual amounts of moisture from snow and rain.

Mears said runoff from snow this winter or rain this spring and summer in the North Creek Watershed could send a wall of mud, debris and fallen trees cascading down the hill and into Beulah.

“To a larger degree, Costilla and Huerfano counties have larger problems because of the size of fires there. It’s crazy, the water that could be coming down there,” Mears said.

Mears said his bureau has an emergency action plan in place for the Beulah area.

The Junkins Fire near Wetmore was ignited on Oct. 17, 2016, by a fallen power line, burning more than 18,000 acres and destroying nine homes and 17 outbuildings. It devastated areas of the North Creek Watershed and wasn’t contained until early November.

The town already has seen the heavy impact of flood waters on its burn-scarred areas, as a large flood in May 2017 prompted evacuations and washed out many culverts and roads, causing Pueblo County commissioners to issue a disaster declaration.

For now, the eyes are upstream and in the sky.

“We want to make sure that when people hear those sirens go off that they listen to them and take the necessary precautions to be ready to evacuate,” Mears said. “People need to be cautious during the spring rain and spring runoff to make sure they are safe.”

amestas@chieftain.com

Twitter: @mestas3517