Why It Matters
The Aspen Acres fire has emerged as the seventh largest wildfire in Colorado’s recorded history, destroying hundreds of homes and structures across Pueblo and Custer counties. The scale of destruction highlights the growing threat wildfires pose to Colorado communities and the sophistication of damage assessment tools now employed to track losses across vast burn areas.
What Happened
Aerial imagery analysis has documented 780 total structures destroyed by the Aspen Acres fire, which ignited on June 29 and spread across more than 96,000 acres. The figures include homes, commercial buildings, garages, barns, and sheds—a broader count than traditional ground-based assessments that focus on primary residences and commercial properties.
Pueblo County has confirmed the destruction of 192 homes and 4 commercial buildings through its own assessment process. Within the county, 661 addresses fell within the fire perimeter, with assessors completing evaluations on approximately 67 percent of those properties as of the latest update. An additional 193 primary residences in the Beulah area of Pueblo County were lost. Custer County documented 78 homes destroyed, representing about 2 percent of the county’s total housing stock.
Wind gusts reached 100 miles per hour during the fire’s rapid spread, accelerating damage across the two-county region.
By the Numbers
780 — total structures destroyed (homes, commercial buildings, garages, barns, and sheds)
192 — homes confirmed destroyed in Pueblo County
78 — homes destroyed in Custer County
96,000+ — acres scorched by the fire
100 mph — wind gusts recorded during active fire spread
June 29 — date fire ignited
7th — ranking among Colorado’s largest wildfires in recorded history
Zoom Out
Colorado’s wildfire season continues to produce historically significant disasters. The Marshall fire in December 2021 destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses across Superior, Louisville, and Boulder County, killing two people. Earlier this year, the Eaton and Palisades fires in southern California scorched communities with even greater ferocity, destroying more than 16,000 structures combined in January 2025.
Aerial assessment technology has become critical for rapidly quantifying losses across large geographic areas. The Aspen Acres analysis was conducted using fixed-wing aircraft equipped with high-resolution imaging systems that can detect structures with remarkable precision—one pixel in the Vexcel photographs used equals 10 centimeters on the ground. The imagery was captured Sunday from an altitude of 6,000 feet, with analysis conducted by a team in Germany. The baseline imagery for comparison had been collected in September 2024, allowing analysts to identify structures built after that date and exclude them from the damage count. Vexcel typically deploys its assessment service when fires have destroyed an estimated 100 or more structures.
Assessment Scope and Ongoing Work
The broader aerial count of 780 structures reflects the difference between rapid damage surveys and traditional county property assessments. “Their focus right now is on homes,” according to a spokesperson for the Pueblo County sheriff’s office, indicating that county officials are prioritizing confirmation of residential losses as the primary measure of fire impact.
The discrepancy between aerial totals and confirmed home counts underscores the complexity of damage assessment in large fires. Structures like barns, sheds, and agricultural buildings add significantly to the overall loss total but may receive less priority in official damage reports that emphasize residential and commercial properties.
What’s Next
Pueblo County continues to assess the remaining 33 percent of properties within the fire perimeter, with results expected to refine the picture of total residential and commercial losses. Officials are using both aerial imagery and ground-based verification to produce final damage assessments that will inform recovery efforts, insurance claims, and disaster relief allocations across the affected region.