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Fire-prone landscapes are increasingly being settled. Monitoring this development is an emerging need, and a low-cost method would benefit emergency managers. Existing change- detection methods can be expensive and time consuming when applied to low-density urban change in large, vegetated areas. Nighttime satellite imagery is explored as means for addressing this problem, and a case study is presented for Colorado. The results indicate that from 1992-2000, Grand County had the greatest absolute increase in ambient sprawl into fire-prone areas (215 km²), but Teller County had the greatest percentage increase (7.3 percent). In 2000, La Plata County had the most ambient development in fire-prone areas (909 km²), but Jefferson County had the greatest percentage (42 percent). The paper concludes with a discussion of the prospects and problems of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]