Facing one of the driest years in decades, Fort Carson leaders say they’ve taken extra steps to stop fires like last week’s blaze that spread from a training area on post to a rural neighborhood, burning two homes.

Fort Carson boss Maj. Gen. Randy George said the Carson Midway fire got out of control despite fire crews standing by during a training exercise that paired ground troops and attack helicopters. Crews had nearly ringed the blaze to keep it on the post when high winds stoked the flames into a 24-foot-tall inferno.

“It was burning way too fast and way too hot,” Fort Carson fire chief Robert Fisher said.

George said the fire shows a problem commanders have wrestled with as they train thousands of troops for combat in Afghanistan this year.

“We’ve had 233 days of heightened fire danger over the last year we’ve been training,” he said.

Fires on the 135,000-acre post have been frequent, but relatively harmless, until the Midway blaze. Previously, crews have been able to keep grass fires from spreading beyond the post’s perimeter and away from structures.

Amid the drought – with less than 6 inches of rain and snow on post in the past six months – commanders have taken steps to prevent fires as troops undergo what George calls “tough, realistic training.”

That has included banning the use of fire-starting “tracer” rounds, which the military uses at night because a chemical coating on the bullet leaves a fiery trail. Troops have also done without pyrotechnic simulators and other tools such as flares that are commonly used on the battlefield.

George says training troops remains paramount for Fort Carson, which has sent a brigade of infantry troops to Afghanistan this year and has another headed that way in the coming weeks. But, so is the safety of the post’s neighbors, Fort Carson officials said.

In making training safer, George faces a difficult enemy – tinder dry grass. Recent studies of the post training ranges show that every acre of ground is carrying as much as 6 tons of grass and brush that’s ready to ignite.

It’s the harvest of a relatively wet summer followed by a bone-dry winter.

There’s so much grass that Fort Carson leaders have been reluctant to use intentionally set controlled burns that are a usual tool for cutting fire danger on the post. The risk of those fires growing out of control has been too great, Fisher, the fire chief, explained.

Since controlled burns are out, Fort Carson soldiers have been tackling fire danger the hard way: with bulldozers and shovels.

The post has cut 109 miles of fire trails around the training ranges – a path the width of an urban alley that’s designed to slow the spread of flames.

They’ve also kept helicopter crews on high alert. Three Carson choppers battled the Midway blaze along with troops from the post’s combat engineer units using bulldozers and road graders.

Still, the post has taken a public beating, with petitions and letters to the editor questioning how the fire started and why training wasn’t delayed during a red-flag day warning of high winds and fire danger.

George said the Midway fire taxed the post’s resources.

“There was a lone dispatcher. Everyone else was moving to the flames.”

George isn’t happy about the fire’s outcome. He’s ordered an investigation into how the blaze started and how it got out of control.

The post has opened a claims office for those whose property was damaged, and the Defense Department has seen more than a dozen filed.

Col. Ron Fitch, the post’s garrison commander, said Fort Carson is also working with El Paso and Pueblo counties’ officials to reinvigorate an effort that is supposed to keep peace with the neighbors.

For more than a decade, the post, in concert with local officials, has been growing a “buffer zone” around Fort Carson’s fences. The south side of the post and much of its eastern boundary have buffers that prevent building near the Fort Carson fence.

But in two neighborhoods – Rancho Colorado and Midway – progress has been slow – the buffer program buys up property as it comes onto the market.

Both neighborhoods are near Fort Carson training ranges, making them especially vulnerable when fires start.

While fire danger remains high, Fort Carson leaders say most of the ranges where troops fire weapons, rockets and artillery have been ringed with fire trails.

The range where the Midway fire erupted was one that had been closely monitored for risk, Fisher said.

“This was one of our highest-concern areas,” he said.

The pace of training at Fort Carson is expected to slow this summer when as many as 10,000 troops from the 24,500-soldier post are deployed to war.

But Fort Carson remains worried about elevated fire risk throughout the region and on its western boundary, where dry trees on the slopes of Cheyenne Mountain loom.

To counter that worry, the post continues to dig fire trails. It is also training a 40-member wildland fire crew to back up its department.

George said he’s also working to further cement the already tight bonds between emergency crews on post and neighboring jurisdictions.

Fort Carson soldiers played key roles in fighting the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires of 2012 and 2013.

“We are super proud of the partnerships we have,” George said.