NEDERLAND — The Nederland Fire Protection District (NFPD) faced some unique challenges throughout midsummer, from the rise of traffic accidents and tourists lost in the backcountry, to the onslaught from Mother Nature that came in the form of pesky woodpeckers and erratic lightning storms.  

The NFPD Board of Directors met on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, to hear of the District’s work in the face of such natural and human-caused issues, as well as to learn what the District plans to do the next time a woodpecker takes out an entire region’s internet.  

Woody’s revenge 

NFPD Chief Charlie Schmidtmann reported to the Board that all of Nederland’s tower-based cellphone coverage and internet went down for several days due to one or more woodpeckers damaging the fiberoptic line. 

From August 15 to August 18, Nederland residents were either without internet access or with very diminished capacity, and in some cases were completely without the ability to make phone calls, as all carriers suffered from the severing of a single line. 

Schmidtmann described the situation as “somewhat hectic” when wrangling the different carriers, Verizon, AT&T, Lumen/CenturyLink, and others, and managing their access to the fiberoptic line.

However, Schmidtmann reiterated his confidence in the NFPD’s ability to serve the most vulnerable in the community during such a mishap.

“When we have these outages, the battery backups on landlines go out pretty quick, so we put in Starlink at the Fire Station,” Schmidtmann explained, “and we let the town of Eldora know that if there’s an emergency you can least go to the station and make a phone call with your cellphone.” 

The Board of Directors asked whether the District has worked with any of the communications providers regarding a cell tower to be constructed at the Eldora ski area. Schmidtmann noted that Fire Marshal Andrew Joslin is working with one such provider on planning for the construction of a 100-foot antenna. However, Boulder County is requiring the antenna to be constructed below the ski area. 

Joslin also reported how the fiberoptic line issue exacerbated another issue the District was experiencing with its primary network firewall.

The firewall had unfortunately experienced a hardware failure which required the network traffic to be rerouted through fiberoptic-based routers, which only served as a part-time solution before the fiberoptic line went down. 

Joslin is awaiting replacement parts before the firewall can be completely repaired. Schmidtmann added that the District is continuing to assess how to best reinforce their communications systems. As for the internet providers and their battle with woodpeckers, no directives have yet been given towards resolving this issue. 

Lightning strikes thrice 

Schmidtmann provided the Board with his monthly report. This detailed some of the 49 calls that the District has answered since mid-July, including multiple backcountry rescues off the popular Fourth of July trail, multiple motor vehicle accidents along Boulder Canyon and the Peak to Peak Highway, and two separate wildland fires, both of which were caused by lightning strikes. 

Both the Peakview Drive and Indian Peaks Drive fires were found to have been started by lightning strikes hitting trees, according to Joslin’s investigations. 

The Peakview Drive fire occurred on July 25 during the night as a fierce rainstorm rolled through; it was reported by a resident who witnessed the lightning strike. The Indian Peaks Drive fire—which was the third lightning-caused fire this summer—was also reported by a nearby resident on August 12, and was responded to quickly by the US Forest Service, Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, and NFPD. 

Seeking full compliance 

After having discussed the 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code (CWRC) during previous meetings, the Board had only to give a final vote of approval during their August meeting to officially adopt the code and its revised and amended statutes. 

Drafted by the Wildfire Resiliency Code Board as part of the Division of Fire Prevention and Control within the Colorado Department of Public Safety, the CWRC was officially adopted by the State of Colorado in July of 2025.

The purpose of the code, according to the NFPD Board’s Resolution 2026-01, is to “establish the minimum standards consistent with nationally recognized good practice for providing a reasonable level of life safety and property protection from the hazards of fire, explosion, and dangerous conditions in new and existing buildings, structures, and premises, and to provide for the safety of firefighters, and emergency responders during emergency operations.”

Regulations within the code manage structure hardening and other site requirements imposed by an area’s Fire Intensity Classification (FIC), which is determined by “expected wildfire behavior,” as well as by surrounding fuels, potential flame length, rate of potential spread, terrain influence, and suppression difficulty. 

Any “construction, alteration, movement, repair, maintenance and use of any building, structure or premises within the wildland-urban interface areas of Colorado” will require hardening measures to be implemented, the strength of which is based on the surrounding area’s FIC—low, moderate, or high.

The NFPD Board voted unanimously to approve adoption of the CWRC. Joslin is working with the Division of Fire Prevention and Control to ensure that the NFPD is marked as “compliant” now that the formal adoption has been approved, as it was expected to be adopted back in March. 

The Nederland Fire Protection District Board of Directors meets on the third Wednesday of every month. Meetings can be attended online via Microsoft Teams. Their next meeting will be on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at 7 p.m. 

For more information go to: nfpd.org.