Polis announced Sunday that he has submitted a formal request for a federal disaster declaration that would open Colorado to assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. However, approval is given at the president’s discretion, and when Colorado asked for help in 2025, President Donald Trump denied it.
Read more No. 23 Colorado volleyball aims to fulfill expectations in 2026
Polis submitted a 50-page letter outlining Colorado’s case and how it complies with federal law that governs disaster assistance.
In a news release, Polis said Colorado officials had assessed the damage “correctly and by the book” to support the communities that suffered from the wildfires.
“These disasters clearly meet all the requirements for a major disaster declaration, and the flooding and debris flows that followed have caused further destruction and claimed a life,” Polis said. “Colorado has committed significant resources to this response, but the scale of this disaster requires a strong partnership among federal, state and local governments for a successful recovery.”
Typically, presidential approval for a state’s request for help following natural disasters is routine.
President Joe Biden approved federal aid for the 2021 Marshall fire in Boulder County within hours of the state’s request for help. President Barack Obama gave his blessing for the federal assistance within a few days of the catastrophic Front Range floods in 2013.
But Trump denied Colorado’s request for federal disaster assistance for the 2025 Elk and Lee fires in northwestern Colorado and for flooding on the Western Slope. The state appealed the first denial only to have that appeal turned down, too.
The denial was the first for Colorado in 35 years, and it caught state officials off guard.
The previous denial came from President George H.W. Bush, who declined assistance after an F3 tornado on June 11, 1990, that caused an estimated $20 million in damages in Limon, according to FEMA data.
Federal aid would help Pueblo, Custer and Ouray counties rebuild roads, water treatment plants, parks and other public services that were damaged or destroyed by the two wildfires. Rural electric cooperatives would qualify for assistance in rebuilding lost power lines and transmission stations, said Kevin Klein, director of the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Federal dollars would also be available to people whose houses were uninsured, bringing much needed help to residents who cannot afford to rebuild their mountain homes. It is unclear how many people who lost homes did not carry insurance, but The Denver Post talked to multiple people in Beulah who said they and their neighbors were denied insurance coverage because of the wildfire risk. Secondary homes would not be covered by federal disaster aid.
In Beulah, people not only lost homes in the Aspen Acres fire, but they also have suffered from flooding on the burn scar, which has sent mud, fallen trees and debris from burned houses into the valley, ruining people’s floors, walls and furniture.
The Aspen Acres fire ignited on June 29 in Custer County and then spread to Pueblo and Fremont counties, where it has to date burned more than 102,000 acres, ranking it the seventh largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history. The fire is 74% contained and is burning in unpopulated areas of rugged terrain.
The Aspen Acres fire destroyed 329 houses and another 62 were damaged, according to the governor’s letter. The wildfire also destroyed hundreds of other buildings such as barns, garages and work sheds. Those outbuildings would not qualify property owners for federal disaster money.
Read more Today in History: August 24, Pluto demoted to dwarf planet
Of those destroyed homes, 208 were in Beulah, and 85 homes burned in unincorporated Custer County, which accounts for 2% of the county’s entire housing stock, the governor’s letter stated.
“These losses were inflicted on two rural counties with limited housing inventory, a high proportion of older residents on fixed incomes, and a documented pattern of underinsurance,” Polis’s letter stated.
The San Isabel Electric Cooperative, which provides electricity to 24,000 people in seven southern Colorado counties, lost millions of dollars of equipment such as power lines, transformers and distribution infrastructure.
The Gold Mountain fire started on June 28 in Ouray County and has burned 39,500 acres and is 87% contained. While that fire burned largely on public land, it destroyed five homes and damaged five others. But most f the destruction followed flooding from its burn scar.
U.S. 550 between Ouray and Ridgway has been closed repeatedly as debris flowed off the burn scar and buried the roadway and clogged culverts. Mudslides on Red Mountain Pass closed the highway between Ouray and Silverton.
“Because U.S. 550 is the only route in this corridor, each closure isolates residents from medical care, employment, and emergency services,” the governor’s letter said. “The closures ruptured the region’s tourism economy at the height of its high summer season.”
Trump is willing to withhold federal funding from Colorado in what many argue is political retaliation over the state’s support for Democratic presidential candidates and its mail-in voting system.
He has stripped hundreds of millions of dollars from Colorado, including grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy, which is led by Coloradan Chris Wright. The administration also wants to close the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder and to move other federal agencies out of state.
Earlier this month, The Post reported that the White House in late 2025 held a meeting with five agency leaders to discuss what they could do about Colorado as Trump berated Polis over former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters’ imprisonment. Peters was found guilty in 2024 of four felonies and three misdemeanors in connection with her scheme to allow an unauthorized person access to the county’s voting machines.
An email about the December meeting was disclosed during a federal court hearing over a Colorado lawsuit alleging retaliation by the Trump administration. State officials argue that retaliation was motivated by the president’s frustration with Peters’ incarceration and by the state’s mail-in balloting system.
Even if Polis’s disaster request is denied, the state will do all it can to help the communities recover, Klein said.
“This is about the survivors and what we can do to help them and the communities rebuild,” he said. “That’s where our focus is and that’s where our focus will remain.”
Read more Bear found in tree in Denver’s Platt Park
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.
