Gunnison is still planning its annual Fourth of July fireworks show for Saturday night at Jorgensen Park, even as Colorado’s fire season has turned sharply more dangerous and many communities have pulled the plug. Meeker, Bayfield and Cortez are also saying their professional shows can still be run safely.
The timing matters because Colorado has 16 active wildfires burning statewide, and several Western Slope counties, the White River National Forest, the San Juan National Forest and the Upper Colorado River District of the Bureau of Land Management have all moved to Stage 2 fire restrictions. Those rules prohibit personal fireworks, sparklers, fountains and other spark-producing activities, but they still allow professional displays with local approval.
For residents in Gunnison and the other towns still moving ahead, the decision sits in the middle of a split-screen summer: one set of communities is canceling while another is trying to keep a holiday tradition alive under tighter controls. Vail, Aspen, Rifle, Craig and Montrose have canceled their fireworks shows, Silverton canceled its display on Tuesday for the first time in six years, and Rico also called off its show. Durango canceled last summer.
Hugo Ferchau, who leads the Gunnison County Fire Protection District, said the local team has spent more than two decades refining its safety plan. He said the district knows how to mitigate the risks, and that the launch area is surrounded by irrigated softball fields, a dog park, wetlands and hayfields, with fire engines stationed on three sides.
That careful setup does not remove the uncertainty. Ferchau recently sent eight firefighters and two engines to help crews battling the Gold Mountain fire near Ouray, a reminder that Gunnison is helping fight fires elsewhere even as it prepares for its own show. He said crews talk every day about the weather, the burn index and fuel moisture, and officials are still weighing weather, fire behavior and resource availability before Saturday night.
Ferchau also said people who know their own locations and conditions should be making those decisions, and he would rather have families watching a managed display than dealing with rogue fireworks that can spark sagebrush fires. That is the line Colorado is drawing now: local governments can still approve professional shows, but the margin for error is thin, and the next weather shift or fire flare-up could decide whether Gunnison’s fireworks go ahead after all.
