Your Porch Wants to Burn

The projecting beam caught fire, which was luckily caught by
firefighters working in the area. 

As the Aspen Acres Fire moved toward them in early July 2026, the owners of this historic ranch (clear back to Charles Goodnight, in a way) cut a fire line through the surrounding pines with a skid steer. 

Later they got permission to come back for a few hours, while the area was officially evacuated, to look for some missing bison. Another volunteer firefighter and I were tasked with escorting them — there was still some live fire in the area — and making sure that they left on time.  

They cruised on ATVs here and there. We parked our "brush truck" and walked around nearby, noting what had burned (two outbuildings, a Kawasaki Mule) and what survived.  

The fire line had held, and that was good. But wind-blown embers had flown up under the back porch roof and lodged there, setting a large beam on fire. Had not a Forest Service wildland engine come by when it did, fire could have taken the whole roof and then the house.

We love our porches, but they are fire traps. 

Horseshoe Lodge, 1950s (?)

A few valleys away, the historic Horseshoe Lodge (12,294 sq. ft.) stood in Pueblo Mountain Park just above the little town of Beulah. The park was created in the 1920s as a refuge from Pueblo heat, and the lodge, originally called Mountain View Lodge, was built for lodging, dining, and event space in the 1930s. Its Pueblo Revival style might be considered to be Southwestern "Parkitecture," with adobe walls and heavy pine beams.

Decrepit by the 1970s, it was heavily renovated and upgraded in the 2000s. The park managers were fire-conscious too, and over recent years thinned trees and removed underground in the central parts of the park.

Aerial view of Horseshoe Lodge after the fire, published on Facebook 
by Pueblo photographer John Wark. Click to enlarge.

On its first day, the wind-driven fire rolled downhill from the west — the top of the photograph — toward the lodge. It looks to me like embers flew into the porch timbers, setting the roof and then the interiors ablaze, which reflected heat back into the trees in front of the lodge. There no trail of charring on the ground. Only the adobe walls were left.

If you want a fire-resistant house, build with masonry, metal, or stucco, and have no protrusions for fire to snatch. But who wants that?  

I am as guilty as anyone. My house is basically a rectangular box, set into a hillside along its long edge. 

What makes it more than a box is the covered porch taking up most of the downhill long edge. M. and I eat out there, weather permitting. There are chairs for lounging and a desk/work table. And the space underneath the porch, where you can walk in, is always where both junk and necessary stuff collect.

We left in too much of a hurry. I should have cleared it, but I did not. I came home to find the chairs, tables, firewood box, garden supplies, wheelbarrow, and everything else set helter-skelter out in the grass. I totally understand: that was basic structure protection. Even with the metal roof, that underneath space is a fire-catcher. All you can do is prepare for it, I suppose.

Or there is this approach:

A historic cabin in North Cascades National Park is wrapped with foil
to protect it during the 2026 Border 2 Fire (National Park Service).