08/23/2026
Sheriff Smith and elected leaders across Southern Colorado submitted letters of support for a Disaster Declaration by President Trump, at the request of Governor Jared Polis.
Below is Sheriff Smith's letter of support submitted on Thursday. This united group of leaders is seeking to maximize federal grant support for the thousands of people impacted by the Aspen Acres Fire and the Gold Mountain Fire.
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CUSTER COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
702 Rosita Ave, PO Box 1489, Westcliffe, Colorado 81252
August 20, 2026
The Honorable Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
As the elected Sheriff of Custer County, Colorado, I am asking you directly for federal financial support for our recovery from the Aspen Acres Fire — and for your leadership on a wildfire crisis burning out of control on public lands across this nation.
The Aspen Acres Fire started as a three-acre fire during a wind event on June 29. It very quickly crossed the highway, hit the San Isabel National Forest, and exploded through decades of unmanaged, beetle-killed timber into one of the worst wildfires in Colorado history — over 100,000 acres, hundreds of homes destroyed, thousands of families displaced. A fire this size could have been stopped in its first hour with enough volunteer firefighters and fire trucks on the ground. We didn't have them. Like most rural counties, we never will without help.
This did not have to happen. For decades, administrations of both parties failed to invest in managing our national forests — thinning, prescribed burns, removing dead and dying beetle-killed pine. That failure is now costing the federal government over $120 million to suppress just this single fire. Last week, the National Interagency Fire Center reported 49,608 wildfires across the United States so far this year, burning more than 7,510,237 acres — and the Aspen Acres Fire is only one of them. Business as usual is no longer an option.
I estimate that the total losses across Custer and Pueblo counties — homes, land, infrastructure, watershed, and economy — will exceed half a billion dollars. The 75 percent Fire Management Assistance Grant FEMA has approved covers only a fraction of what it will take to rebuild.
The people bearing this loss can least afford it. Custer County has one of the highest percentages of military veterans of any county in Colorado, and one of the oldest populations in the state. Many of our residents are retirees on fixed incomes who came here for one thing: a paid-off home in the mountains. Insurance companies have been dropping them or pricing them out with premiums they cannot pay. That retirement dream is now ash, and without help, it cannot be rebuilt.
Mr. President, I am asking you personally to approve a full federal Major Disaster Declaration for Custer County. The FEMA grant fights the fire; it does nothing for the family whose home is gone. I know similar requests for other Colorado wildfires were denied this past year. I am asking you to look at what happened here — to a county of veterans and retirees who lost everything to a fire that started at three acres — and grant the declaration that unlocks the individual assistance and mitigation funding our people need to rebuild.
Thank you for your attention to Custer County. We are ready to work with your administration to rebuild — and to help make sure no other community suffers what we have suffered this summer.
Respectfully,
Rich Smith
Sheriff, Custer County, Colorado
