On Dec. 19, fire crews inspected a downed powerline along Sunshine Canyon Drive, about four miles west of downtown Boulder, and reported it to Boulder County dispatch, which passed the information to Xcel Energy. The report came the same day Xcel cut power to tens of thousands of customers as extreme winds elevated wildfire risk.
The following evening, as Xcel crews were restoring power amid continued high winds, Sunshine Fire Protection District Fire Chief Michael Schmitt said fire crews returned to the same location and found a fire burning along the powerline that had been lying on the ground.
Schmitt said he has no doubt the line had been re-energized, causing the fire.
Even though the damaged powerline had been reported to Xcel, Schmitt said utility crews restoring power were not aware of it. That account raises questions about whether Xcel’s internal communication systems are equipped to prevent the very disasters the shutoffs are designed to avoid.
“We got it firsthand from some of the crew bosses that they do not get any information that is reported by Boulder County dispatch,” Schmitt told the Colorado Public Utilities Commission last week. “They just don’t see it on the ground, and that’s obviously a problem.”
Xcel began using planned shutoffs in 2024 as a wildfire prevention tool, and the practice is now under review by the PUC, which regulates utilities in the state.
Schmitt said the timing of the fire likely prevented far more serious consequences because winds had eased by the time crews arrived.
“If that had happened two, three hours before, that fire would have jumped Sunshine Canyon and had moved up towards Pinebrook Hills,” just outside the City of Boulder, Schmitt said.
The December 2025 outages came during an extreme wind event that elevated wildfire risk across Boulder County and surrounding areas. Xcel intentionally cut power to about 49,900 customers during a Dec. 17 windstorm and 67,000 customers during a Dec. 19 windstorm. Others lost power due to storm damage.
During the windstorms, Boulder Fire-Rescue responded to two fires within city limits. A Dec. 18 fire in the 4500 block of 19th Street in the Boulder Meadows area was suspected to be cooking-related, according to Jamie Barker, a spokesperson for Boulder Fire-Rescue. A Dec. 19 blaze, known as the Euclid Fence Fire, was suspected to have been caused by sparks from an Xcel powerline, though Barker said it was unclear whether the fire involved a damaged live wire or a re-energized line.
Xcel officials said hurricane-force winds damaged 33 poles, 22 transformers and 166 fuses.
The shutoffs were widely viewed as a necessary measure to reduce the risk of a wildfire fueled by high winds and dry conditions. But they also heightened frustration over the vulnerability of the electric grid in an area where windstorms are common but increasingly collide with hotter, drier conditions.
That vulnerability became evident again two days after the close call in Sunshine Canyon, when Xcel’s infrastructure appears to have sparked a second fire.
On Dec. 22, a fire broke out in Fourmile Canyon, prompting evacuations in the canyon and along Poorman Road. The blaze, later named the Wild Turkey Fire, appears to have been caused by a damaged powerline following the windstorm, according to Schmitt and an official investigation.
A case report by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office stated that a ponderosa pine was leaning into the powerline near the fire’s origin and that the powerline separated and fell to the ground.
“Small fragments of what appeared to be power line material were located near the stumps of several burned trees, with additional fragments scattered within approximately a 15-foot radius of the suspected origin point,” the report states. The vegetation below the line was light and dry, “capable of ignition from electrical energy or heated line material.”
The sheriff’s office determined there was “nothing criminal in nature” and closed its investigation, according to Carrie Haverfield, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.
Xcel is conducting its own review.
“Xcel Energy is investigating both incidents, particularly whether additional damage occurred after our crews inspected the areas and re-energized the lines,” Michelle Aguayo, a spokesperson for Xcel, said. “We take these instances seriously and are committed to public safety, especially during extreme wildfire conditions.”
Aguayo said the utility requires crews to visually inspect powerlines and make necessary repairs before restoring power to ensure re-energization happens safely. She said it is the company’s understanding that both the Sunshine Canyon and Fourmile Canyon lines were de-energized when they initially hit the ground.
Separately, customers have raised concerns about Xcel’s communications with residents and decisions to cut power to vulnerable populations, including those living in affordable housing who rely on oxygen.
The PUC held a hearing last week as part of its pre-rulemaking proceeding to consider possible new rules governing planned power shutoffs.
Concerns about powerline safety have followed Xcel for years. In Sept. 2025, Xcel and two telecommunications companies agreed to pay $640 million to settle lawsuits over the 2021 Marshall Fire, the most destructive in Colorado’s history. Plaintiffs alleged a damaged Xcel powerline was responsible for one of two fires that merged on Dec. 30, 2021.
Neither of the December 2025 fires caused property damage. But Schmitt said the timing likely avoided catastrophic events.
During the Wild Turkey Fire in Fourmile Canyon, flames stopped within feet of a garage, Schmitt said. Rich Caudill, fire chief for the Gold Hill Fire District, told the PUC last week that residents without power were left in a “communication blackout” during the evacuation.
When crews arrived at the Fourmile Canyon fire, the gusts were around 30 miles per hour, Schmitt said. But just hours earlier, gusts had reached about 50 miles per hour. Those stronger winds, he said, would likely have pushed the fire east toward the City of Boulder.
“We got lucky that day,” he said.
Update: This story was updated on Feb. 3 to include comment from a city official about two fires that occurred during the windstorms within city limits. One fire was suspected to have been caused by a damaged Xcel powerline, according to Boulder Fire-Rescue.
Great work, this is excellent journalism and it’s on one of the most important issues for the city. This should act the tipping point (wake-up call) to update the entire system of above-ground lines throughout the county.
This framing creates a false equivalence between planned power shutoffs (PSPS) and post‑storm restoration failures. It is not known when the Sunshine Canyon or Fourmile Canyon lines were damaged, and it is entirely plausible that damage occurred during the PSPS window, when hurricane‑level gusts made ignition and fire spread risks the highest.
What is clear is that no ignitions occurred during the PSPS events themselves. The fires ignited later, during restoration, when winds were significantly lower (around 30 mph). Xcel reported damage to 33 poles, 22 transformers, and 166 fuses—all potential ignition sources—yet none ignited during the shutdown window. That strongly suggests PSPS reduced ignition risk when conditions were most dangerous, even if restoration processes clearly need improvement.
Longer‑term hardening—targeted undergrounding, system segmentation, and better field‑to‑dispatch communication still matters. But we also need to be honest about today’s reality: under increasingly extreme weather, five‑nines (99.999%) reliability from the grid alone is no longer realistic everywhere. Reliability now has to be built in layers, combining utility hardening and customer‑side resilience, not pretending one can fully substitute for the other.
That’s not accurate. There were at least two fires that started during the windstorm that were unrelated to power restoration, including one in downtown Boulder. Boulder Fire-Rescue confirmed their causes after the story was published, and we have since added them.
This story is based on concerns raised by local fire officials we spoke with — the people on the ground putting out fires — who also expressed those concerns to the PUC, as reflected in the story.