​​Marshall fire lawsuit set for September and other fire updates

Headlines Friday August 22, 2025

​​Marshall Fire Lawsuit set for September

At a hearing Wednesday, attorneys set the date of September 25 for the trial against Xcel energy, the goal of the trial is to determine Xcel’s responsibility in the start and spread of the Marshall fire. The lawyers involved with the case spent wednesday;s hearing speaking on how jurors will be able to determine fault and how Xcel could be held accountable in the event they’re found at fault.

The Denver Post reports that the testimony showcased at the trial will include technical understandings about how fire spreads and the steps electricity companies make when mitigating fire damage. Plaintiffs in the case included some 4000 Boulder residents whose properties were lost or damaged in the wake of the fire. 

Plaintiffs also include retail outlet Target, as well as 200 insurance companies who paid out damages to victims of the blaze.

Jefferson County District Court Judge Christopher Zenisek told attorneys at the hearing he plans to call 300 prospective jurors and anticipated a third will be immediately disqualified from serving because of the far reaching impacts of the fire.

Attorneys at Wednesday’s hearing also decided that jurors will be asked to determine Xcel’s responsibility for causing the whole of the fire. Though they will hear testimony from some who were impacted, jurors will not determine Xcel’s responsibility for individual homes or properties.

Read more.

Wildfire Update

The Lee Fire burning along the western slope is only 5 acres away from becoming the fourth-largest wildfire in Colorado history. According to the Post Independent, the fire has burned through 137,755  acres as of Thursday evening. Firefighters have reached 73 percent containment of the blaze. 

This news comes as evacuation orders have been put in place for areas of Dotsero near White River National Forest because of the growing Derby Fire. The Derby Fire, burning east of the Lee fire, has tripled in growth on two separate occasions, burning 2,600 acres according to reports as of Thursday evening.

Fire Severity Study

A new study from the University of Utah links industrial forests where trees are grown for lumber to higher-severity wildfires. This is especially true in more extreme fire weather.

Researchers say that’s due to how timber companies tend to plant: regularly-spaced trees without a lot of diversity tend to provide more continuous fuel for wildfires.

It’s called “plantation” or “even-aged” forestry.

Jacob Levine is one of the lead researchers on the study. He says the findings have both positives and negatives for land managers.

“This issue with these plantation-type structures is going to become even worse under climate change. But it also means that we can enact management practices, in particular, thinning of forests, that will continue to be effective even in the more extreme and warm climates of the future.”

The Trump administration has indicated that it would like to ramp up logging operations throughout much of the Western United States.

Levine says any new policies around logging should find a balance between harvesting lumber sustainably and mitigating the risks of severe fires