City of Boulder to close western trails on Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) property Saturday, March 14

The City of Boulder will close all city-owned Open Space and Mountain Parks property west of Hwy. 93, Broadway and Hwy. 36 from sunset today, Friday, March 13, to sunrise on Sunday, March 15 as a fire prevention and visitor safety measure. This includes all trails and trailheads in the western part of the OSMP system. Flagstaff Road will also be closed to non-residential traffic. Please visit the city's Interactive Web Mapto see more details.

Boulder County Parks and Open Space will also be closing all parts of their open space system located west of Hwy. 36 on Saturday.

"This is a precautionary measure to protect lives and property as we face a high-risk day," said City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde. "We know access to nature and open space is important to our community, and we've not made this decision lightly. We need people to stay off all closed parts of the system to prevent injury, reduce the risk of ignition and to allow rangers and law enforcement to respond to other calls for service associated with this wind event. Thank you in advance for your cooperation."

The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warningthat includes dangerously high winds and critical fire conditions. They've cautioned that any fire start is likely to develop into a fast-moving blaze. Flying debris and downed limbs and trees will pose significant safety concerns to visitors on OSMP.

The city and surrounding areas are already recovering from power outages and damage from Thursday's serious wind event, and it is highly likely that additional outages - both planned and unplanned - will occur. Xcel Energy has announced it will implement a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) for some customers in Boulder and Jefferson counties Saturday afternoon. Other disruptions are expected because of the winds themselves.

With all power outages, customers should prepare to be without electricity for 24 to 48 hours. Xcel crews will need to inspect lines and respond to infrastructure damage before they turn the power back on. Xcel Energy is the best source of information for all questions and updates related to power impacts.

Be sure you are signed up to receive urgent emergency alerts from police or fire officials at www.bocoalert.org. This will ensure you do not miss important life-safety orders related to evacuations and other directives from first responders.

The city has been sharing key preparedness guidance on Boulder Fire-Rescue social media all week and will continue to do so for the next few hours. Starting at 7 p.m. tonight and throughout tomorrow, coordinated city and county messages will be posted on the Office of Disaster Management's (ODM) website. You can also sign up to receive the info from the ODM website on your phone by texting BOCOinfo to 888777.

If you wish to receive emergency alerts and general safety information in a language other than English, please download the Reachwell app on your phone. You will have an option to select the language that works best for you. It is important that you select two separate categories - BOCOalert and BOCOinfo - to ensure you receive all messages during an emergency. The city also encourages you to turn on audible notifications within the app so you will be made aware when new messages are available.

The following are some important safety tips:

• There will be no open burning permitted; this includes agricultural burning.
• Do not burn anything outdoors or conduct spark-producing activities.
• If you must travel during high winds, treat any intersection without powered traffic lights as a four-way stop and assume any downed power lines are energized.
• Follow public health guidance on food safety during power outages.
• Stay away from damaged lines, trees, and equipment.
• Only use 911 for emergencies.
• Have an evacuation plan ready - know what modes of transportation you could take, have them fueled/powered up, know your routes, and what essential or irreplaceable items you would need to take with you.
• If you typically keep your vehicle in a garage, make sure you know how to open your garage when the power is out (red pull tab, then you must be able to manually open the door), or consider parking your vehicle outside.