Bret Waters and Craig Casper were honored Thursday for their work on the wildfire evacuation plan that was implemented during the Waldo Canyon fire.

The plan was chosen as the Women’s Transportation Study of Colorado’s Small Project of the Year, for projects costing less than $1 million.

A letter announcing the award lauded the plan for “innovative strategies (and) collaboration with several agencies.”

Casper, the transportation director for Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, said 16,000 people were evacuated in 90 minutes June 26 when the Waldo Canyon fire swept into Colorado Springs.

“Without that plan, it wouldn’t have happened,” Casper said. “People who don’t think (the evacuation) went well don’t have a baseline to judge it against.

“I can only imagine what it would’ve been like if all the police and fire personnel didn’t have that plan in their vehicles.”

Casper and Waters, Colorado Springs director of emergency management, said many people were at the table when the plan was created in 2010-11, including first responder groups.

“We were planning for something that might happen, knowing that wildfire danger is part of living here,” Waters said. “We were trying to plan how to get people in cars out faster and maybe save lives.

“You can never predict every detail, and fire behavior always dictates your response.

“I feel we did everything we could beforehand and executed the plan as best we could. We had little time to evacuate a lot of people.”

Casper said the plan was first carried in the vehicles of first responders nine months before the Waldo Canyon fire.

He said a large-scale evacuation plan hadn’t been completed before that, although “some concepts” were in place.

The plan included evacuation routes for all neighborhoods west of Interstate 25, including Manitou Springs.

Waters said lessons learned during the fire are being discussed and the evacuation plan could be amended.

“We’re reviewing and still evaluating,” he said.

Aereon Dillen, 6, far left, and Daelynn Dillen, 8, along with other friends and family gather at Picturesque and North Carefree circles in October. The boys’ mother, Rebecca Robinson, and Rose Arcuragi were hit and killed by an SUV. Photo by Gazette file