San Francisco, CA — Ladris Technologies today announced that Douglas County, CO has selected Ladris Fire, Evac, and Open Evacuation Zones (OEZ) for wildfire evacuation modeling and zone management. Built on Ladris Core, these integrated tools provide Douglas County with a unified system for planning and response.
Located along the Front Range urban-wildland interface between Denver and Colorado Springs, Douglas County faces significant wildfire risk and is widely recognized for its leadership and preparedness efforts in wildfire response. To further strengthen local efforts, Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly and his Emergency Management staff identified the need for well-designed evacuation zones in a platform with the ability to issue evacuation orders and warnings; rapid fire-spread intelligence to gauge potential fires on red flag days and get ahead of evolving incidents; and long-range scenario planning to prepare response tactics and traffic management strategies in advance.
Central to the County's selection is Open Evacuation Zones, Ladris' no-cost evacuation zone management platform. Unlike other platforms that bind zone data to proprietary formats, OEZ publishes zones in open, interoperable standards compatible with any system. Zones built in OEZ can connect or integrate with any mapping tool, alert platform, or regional coordination system, enabling seamless coordination with neighboring jurisdictions and connecting zone status directly to public communication tools.
Alongside OEZ, Ladris Evac and Ladris Fire work in tandem to support Douglas County's pre-incident planning and active response. Evac combines population data, traffic patterns, and road conditions to simulate evacuations, estimate clearance times, identify optimal order-issuance windows, and model contraflow and traffic control operations. Fire delivers wildfire spread projections in seconds using live weather, terrain, and fuel data so incident commanders can anticipate fire growth and focus suppression resources. Together, these models enable the County Sheriff's Office to test scenarios before fire season and execute data-driven response strategies when active incidents occur.
Beyond improving planning and response efforts, the County's partnership with Ladris will support the Sheriff's Office in demonstrating return on investment for suppression activities and infrastructure funding, and delivering evidence-based narratives at stakeholder meetings.
Our job is to protect Douglas County residents, and that means having the best available tools at our disposal. Ladris Core gives us a common operating picture for planning, response, and accountability that we will build on for years to come.
Mike Alexander — Director of Emergency Management, Douglas County Sheriff's OfficeThis partnership builds on an existing regional collaboration with the Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management (PPROEM), an established Ladris partner whose work with Douglas County on interagency coordination helped shape the County's approach to evacuation planning. Alongside PPROEM, Douglas County joins a growing network of agencies across Colorado and the United States using Ladris to protect communities and make smarter decisions in the face of natural disasters.