In Genesis 1:26, the Bible says, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Then reality intervened.

Reality has a nasty habit of doing that, especially when fire season begins in the West — as it has northwest of Fort Collins, where the Hewlett Fire covered more than 5,000 acres Thursday. For now, it wouldn’t be a good idea to preach to the 400 firefighters about having dominion over the blaze. That includes eight members of the Colorado Springs Fire Department, who responded to the fire.

For those who may have moved here from someplace with a far different climate, welcome to a Western drought year. We had a mild winter with little snowfall followed by a warm, dry spring.

Normally by this date Colorado Springs has received 4 inches of precipitation. This year it’s 1.67 inches. On this date the city’s reservoirs usually are 75.7 percent full; this year it’s 65 percent.

The good news is that two-thirds full is still pretty good. Some of that really big snowfall from the 2010-2011 winter has been retained and Colorado Springs Utilities has said there will be no watering restrictions this summer.

We can build reservoirs but we can’t make it snow. We can try to be safe with fire but we can’t control the lightning.

If we had achieved dominion over foothills west of the city, we wouldn’t refer to them as a “red zone.” Our foothills carry the same dangers as those in Jefferson and Larimer counties.

Sunny Smaldino, CSFD spokeswoman, said “We have 30,000 homes and 96,000 residents in high-risk areas.”

The fire department and residents have been removing dangerous fuels in the red zone. But Colorado Springs has been lucky not to have had the kind of big fires that have hit Conifer and Boulder.

“I could see us, very easily under the right conditions, having 10 houses threatened at the same time,” said CSFD Lt. Matt Clark. The “right” conditions mean a combination of fuels, weather and topography — steep, less accessible ground.

In November 2009 fire destroyed a house and 24 more homes were evacuated as CSFD fought the fire. In March 2011, 70 firefighters responded to a small fire in the Stratton Open Space area.

Clark noted that in forests near urban areas, a catastrophic fire might be a one- or two-day event. That’s what happened in Glenwood Springs in 1994, a fire that killed 14 firefighters.

Eventually, helped by the drought, we could get unlucky. So be careful, everybody.

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Listen to Barry Noreen on KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:35 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.