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Steamboat Springs — As the threat of dangerous conditions created by beetle-killed pine increases in Routt County, firefighters are beginning to rethink their priorities and attitudes toward fighting big blazes.

U.S. Forest Service Fire Management Officer Tony Tezak said that firefighters may no longer expect to contain fires when they are small. Historically, firefighters have been able to extinguish 90 percent of fires "before anyone notices," he said, but when the lives of firefighters are endangered, it may not be worth it to save dead trees.

Tezak was one of several dozen firefighters and emergency responders who convened at the Routt County Courthouse on Thursday for a tabletop exercise, led by U.S. Forest Service Fire Management Officer Mark Cahur, to demonstrate and plan how local agencies would contain a spreading fire.

"What the beetle kill has done to us is, when the winds blow, the risk of snags falling is greatly increased," he said, referring to dead trees that can fall and injure or kill firefighters.

Tezak said he was not willing to risk walking firefighters out among hundreds of dead and dangerous trees to save a few dead trees in the middle. The risk of fires also has increased because those dead trees ignite far easier than live, wet wood.

Cahur, through three hours and 30 slides, walked the conference attendees through the prospect of a fire starting near the Stagecoach area and spreading to surrounding private property. At each step of the way, new agencies and jurisdictions were considered and the communication lines among them discussed. More than a dozen agencies were represented at the conference, including all of the key responders, such as law enforcement, the Bureau of Land Management, the Colorado State Forest Service, U.S. Forest Service, fire protection districts, Routt County commissioners and others.

"This is just the beginning," Cahur said at the end of the conference, noting that several answers and solutions for future fire planning came out of the meeting. "I think the unanswered questions are more important. We're not going to leave here today with a checklist of things to get done and dates to get them done by."

Instead, he said, he would prefer that the attendees think about how they would react in a fire and contact their surrounding agencies to work through communication, cooperation and response issues.

Staging the theoretical fire in Chris Zuschlag's backyard was just the thing to get his attention, he said.

Zuschlag, a Stagecoach resident and president of the Oak Creek Fire Protection District Board, said that knowing that multiple agencies will be involved in any decision gives him peace of mind.

"If someone comes to me and says, 'Why did my house burn down?' I can say we had to sacrifice that house for the betterment of the whole community, and that (other agencies) are behind me," he said. "I know that's not just me saying that."