A shared FM transmitter site in southern Colorado spent about three weeks without commercial power this summer after the Aspen Acres wildfire burned through the surrounding forest. The engineer who looks after the site says the episode shows the limits of relying on a single mountaintop location.
The Camp Jackson site near Rye, Colo., has a 210-foot tower owned by Vertical Bridge. It carries FM antennas for four broadcasters and some federal government communications. Michael Baldauf, a contract engineer who helps maintain the site and lives nearby, was himself evacuated from his home for about a month.
Baldauf said the fire started June 29 about 7 miles north of the site, probably when high winds pushed a tree into a power line. Winds were blowing west to east, so areas to the south first looked safe. Within about three hours the fire had grown sharply and evacuation orders followed. By July 2 it was clear the fire would reach the area. Power to the site was out and nobody could get in. Baldauf gave the local Emergency Operations Center his contact details and told them where the building key was hidden.
Backup power was not an option. After about 10 days, Vertical Bridge ordered the site's propane tank refilled and asked Baldauf to bring the stations back on the air. But the fire still blocked access. Baldauf said at least two electrical upgrades over the years had left out the transfer switch, so the generator was not connected to the building's electrical system. As far as he knew, it had not run since the 1980s. He said none of the stations or owners over the years had shown interest in keeping redundancy at the site.
Roughly a week later, with the fire no longer directly threatening the site, a sheriff's office staff member escorted him up the mountain. The site had been protected, and red fire retardant was visible on the ground. Baldauf switched off every circuit breaker so equipment could be brought back up under supervision once power returned. In late July some nearby evacuations were lifted. A utility employee he had worked with for years told him when power would be restored, and the restart went smoothly. Internet service from the local ISP took a few more days, but stations that had recently moved to Starlink came back right away. The worst damage was a coat of ash and retardant on many surfaces. Forest Service bulldozers also used the site road to build a fire line, and they left it in much better shape.
By September the fire had grown to more than 102,000 acres and destroyed at least 850 structures, including 319 homes, with spot fires still flaring above the site. Baldauf's conclusion is that a mountaintop site gives an FM station range, but a broadcaster should not expect to keep it on the air through weeks without power or access. He sees that as a strong argument for a backup site somewhere else. For stations in fire country, the practical checks are simple: confirm the generator is actually wired in through a transfer switch and test it, keep emergency officials' contact lists current, and consider a second path for program delivery.