Senate finance committee sends wildfire detection bill to appropriations after privacy, funding debate

The Colorado Senate Finance Committee voted unanimously to send Senate Bill 25-011 to the Committee on Appropriations after a hearing that focused on the bill's funding assumptions and privacy safeguards.

Senator Doherty, who sponsored the measure, told the committee the bill creates a Fire Technology Fund within the Division of Fire Prevention and Control in the Department of Public Safety and "does not appropriate state dollars to the Fire Technology Fund." She said the division may issue a request for qualifications if public or private funds are credited to the fund, and the measure creates a mechanism for private funds to be used for deployment of fire technologies.

The bill's supporters describe it as a way to expand early-detection tools for growing wildfire risk. "Any sort of tool in the toolbox we can give to our fire department, I think is a great idea," Senator Doherty said, referencing recent large wildfires, including the…