DENVER -- Gov. Bill Owens said Tuesday that Colorado faces the worst fire season in more than a century and outlined major steps that the state would take to prevent it from becoming a disaster.

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According to officials, the fire season has essentially started two months early this year.

Colorado has already seen 283 fires this season, compared to the year 2000, when the state had only 54 fires up to this point. That had been known as the worst fire season in recent memory because 7.3 million acres burned that season, 7NEWS reported.

Owens signed an executive order to release $450,000 in emergency funds. Among other things, Owens said that the money will provide for three fire air tankers that will be available on standby for rapid response, within 30 minutes, whereas counties battling blazes right now have to wait 24 hours for a response.

Also, 80 new firefighters will be added to the force of 20 trained firefighters on hand to battle wildfires.

The governor is also asking the public to pitch in.

"Start to take steps now to protect your property, particularly if you have a home or cabin in the mountains. The work you do today may help us later this summer be able to not only protect your property but also expose our firefighters to less risk," Owens said.

The governor said he will not institute mandatory water conservation but he will consider that if the drought gets worse during the summer.

Owens also took the unusual step of requesting that the entire state of Colorado receive an emergency drought declaration from the U.S. Department of Agriculture so that farmers can receive emergency assistance.

Cities Limiting Water

Since Colorado is experiencing what could be the worst drought in 25 years, many metro area homeowners are receiving notices about how much water they're using.

In Brighton, residents who use too much water this summer could face fines, or higher rates. That depends on an emergency water conservation plan being considered by the city council, 7NEWS reported.

Water wasters in some Parker subdivisions are getting notices, showing which households are using the most water.

In Arvada, city officials met to figure out how to keep their parks beautiful while at the same time trying to cut back on as much as a 20 percent of their water usage.

Aurora and other cities are considering water rationing. That program issues color-coded calendars to residents suggesting when certain divisions should water their lawn.

Current Fires

Firefighters are currently battling two wildfires.

Hundreds of acres are still burning at Topaz Mountain. So far, 325 acres are burned and it's about 50 percent contained. Firefighters hope to have it completely under control by Wednesday.

Another fire is burning in Larimer County in the Hewlett Gulch area.

It's charred about 600 acres and is also only 50 percent contained.

As a result, there are more fire restrictions as the fire danger across the state remains high. Almost the entire state is in the very high or extreme fire danger category. Unincorporated Jefferson County has now issued a temporary fire restriction. The restrictions means that no fires can be built outside except in a permanently-constructed fire grate. There's also no smoking outdoors. Teller, El Paso and Pueblo counties already have fire bans in place.

Campfires are also restricted to developed sites on public lands in southeast colorado beginning Tuesday.