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Colorado wildfire updates for Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024
As four fires smoldered along Colorado’s Front Range, state and federal officials deployed wildfire investigation teams Thursday, looking into possible points of origin and whether humans played a role in igniting the flames that have burned across nearly 10,000 acres in the mountain foothills.
This week’s wildfires have killed one person and damaged or destroyed at least 30 buildings, prompted the evacuation of thousands of people and triggered Gov. Jared Polis to deploy the Colorado National Guard.
National Guard members will begin helping with logistics, road closures and other tasks that will free up fire officials and firefighters, Polis said.
RELATED: How to prepare for a wildfire evacuation in Colorado
All four fires — the Quarry fire in Jefferson County, the Alexander Mountain fire in Larimer County, the Stone Canyon fire in Boulder and Larimer counties and the Lake Shore fire in Boulder County — began this week and grew rapidly, fueled by hot, dry weather and parched conditions on the ground.
The Bucktail fire sparked Thursday afternoon on the Western Slope was burning on nearly 200 acres with no containment southeast of Nucla in Montrose County.
On Thursday, four Colorado lawmakers asked the National Interagency Fire Center to send more fire resources to the state.
U.S. Reps. Brittany Pettersen and Joe Neguse, and U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, asked the fire center to help Colorado get more boots on the ground, hand crews that are available as soon as possible and any available engines, incident management teams or aviation resources.
“We understand the pressures facing our wildland firefighting workforce, as wildfires rage all across the western United States and continue to threaten many of our communities,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the fire center. “Existing resources are stretched thin to meet those demands. … We continue to face extreme heat and drought conditions that may exacerbate existing fires and increase the risk of additional wildfires. Time is of the essence to save lives and homes.”
Click here to skip to a specific fire: Quarry fire |Alexander Mountain fire |Stone Canyon fire | Lake Shore fire | Bucktail fire | Wildfire map
Quarry fire near Deer Creek Canyon
Access the latest evacuation map here
Last updated at 2:50 p.m.
The Quarry fire is burning on more than 400 acres of land in Jefferson County open space, fire officials said Thursday afternoon.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Mark Techmeyer said in a morning news briefing that the fire did not grow overnight. He said increased humidity overnight helped calm the flames and prevent the wildfire from spreading a significant distance.
However, hot, dry and windy conditions Thursday revived the fire, helping it grow from 341 acres Wednesday night to 418 acres Thursday afternoon, according to West Metro Fire Rescue. By Thursday evening, the fire had grown to 450 acres.
The fire is currently about a quarter-mile from the nearest home — in the Deer Creek Mesa subdivision — and firefighters Thursday are focused on keeping the flames away from houses and keeping it on the south side of Deer Creek Canyon Road, Techmeyer said.
“Deer Creek Canyon Road is the key for us,” he said in a morning briefing. “If we lose control of the fire and it jumps over to the north side, that would be our nightmare.”
Thursday afternoon, three helicopters and two planes doused the flames with fire retardant and water while ground crews from more than a dozen fire agencies worked to cut off the fire’s path.
Ground crews are digging firelines, cutting down brush and vegetation to take fuel from the fire and conducting “burnouts” along roadways Thursday, according to West Metro Fire Rescue. Burnouts remove fuel from the fire’s path and help strengthen natural or manmade barriers that act as containment lines.
“Everybody should be worried right now,” Techmeyer said. “There’s a huge fire that’s difficult to fight. Not being worried would be the concern.”
In a Thursday afternoon briefing, Techmeyer said fire crews “didn’t expect it to be this difficult of a fight,” and that the fire could continue growing for days or weeks as ground crews work to contain the flames.
“We’re in for a long battle,” Techmeyer said. “What’s long? We don’t know yet.”
Firefighters are working to protect homes near the fire by moving outdoor furniture and digging trenches around houses, Techmeyer said.
Five firefighters were injured Wednesday, according to Techmeyer. One had a seizure and four were taken out of the field due to heat exhaustion.
Techmeyer said none were hospitalized and at least three of the firefighters were back on the job Thursday.
The Deer Creek Mesa, Kuehster, McKinney Ranch, Murphy Gulch, Sampson and Maxwell areas remained under mandatory evacuation Thursday morning, according to the county’s evacuation map. The Hilldale Pines, Oehlmann Park, Silver Ranch, West Ranch, Homestead and Silver Ranch South neighborhoods were on pre-evacuation notice.
Deer Creek Canyon Park, South Valley Park, Hildebrand Ranch Park and Reynolds Park are closed until further notice because of firefighting operations, county open space officials said Thursday.
Techmeyer said he’s seen bigger fires in higher elevations, but the Quarry fire is one of the toughest he’s had to fight because of the terrain and the densely populated fire area.
Steep, rocky areas filled with debris, fallen trees and rattlesnake nests make it difficult for ground crews to fight the flames, Techmeyer said.
Thursday morning, the San Juan Interagency Hotshot Crew arrived in Jefferson County to help fight the flames.
Based out of Durango, the Hotshots are a specialist firefighting team that trains year-round to battle fires in tough terrains. Techmeyer described the group as the “SWAT team of firefighting.”
“This fire is not going to be won in the air,” Techmeyer said, adding that air support made a big difference Wednesday but wouldn’t be enough by itself. “Because of the terrain, it has to be won on the ground, with boots on the ground.”
Crews Thursday will continue to dig fire lines and remove fuel from the fire’s path, attempting to form a circle around the fire to contain it, Stacy Martin, assistant fire chief at Evergreen Fire Protection District, said in Thursday’s morning briefing.
As of Thursday afternoon, 155 firefighters were working on the ground to fight the flames. No homes have been lost, Techmeyer said. Officials said Thursday evening that another hand crew would be joining the operation that night.
The cause of the fire remains unknown and the flames are 0% contained.
Techmeyer said the fire was originally discovered by a sheriff’s deputy around 9 p.m. Tuesday and was moving southeast. The fire bloomed from a 10-foot section to the size of 37 football fields in less than an hour.
Alexander Mountain fire near Loveland
Access the latest evacuation map here
Last updated at 7:20 p.m.
Firefighters have gained 5% containment on the 8,134-acre Alexander Mountain fire burning west of Loveland as of Thursday night, fire officials said in an update.
The blaze damaged or destroyed at least 24 homes and buildings as it burned across the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and private land approximately 10 miles west of Loveland.
Larimer County officials were able to enter several neighborhoods Thursday and confirmed at least two dozen structures in the Palisade Mountain Drive and Snow Top Drive areas were damaged or destroyed by the fire.
The buildings are believed to be a combination of homes and outbuildings, sheriff’s office Capt. Tim Keeton said Thursday afternoon. Damage assessment teams will start assessing the properties Friday morning if fire behavior allows.
It’s historically been very difficult to identify the correct homeowners in a wildfire, Keeton said. Anyone who believes their home has been affected should call the sheriff’s office at 970-980-2800.
Fire crews are focusing on protecting the communities of Cedar Park and Storm Mountain along with homes and critical infrastructure along U.S. 34, said Southwest Area Incident Management Team 1 Operations Section Chief Jayson Coil.
An above-ground fiber optic line runs adjacent to the north side of the highway, which provides 911 and phone service to Estes Park with “limited redundancy.” Fire crews are patrolling the area 24 hours a day to protect it, Coil said Thursday afternoon.
The land south of U.S. 34 has more timber and fuel for the fire to burn, and that there would be more long-term consequences if the fire crossed the highway, according to fire officials.
“The strategy that we’ve been implementing today is the same strategy that the local team implemented yesterday with considerable success, given the situation they were faced with,” Coil said. “It’s been all-in-all a positive day.”
As of Thursday night, 327 firefighters were battling the fire. Most of the fire activity Thursday occurred to the north, causing a smoke plume in the afternoon. The fire also backed down to U.S. 34 but didn’t cross the highway, officials said in an update Thursday night.
Fire crews anticipate the Alexander Mountain fire will connect with the Cameron Peak burn scar to the north but don’t anticipate it will move very far into the burned area, Coil said.
Wildfire activity was calmer Thursday compared to earlier in the week, Coil said, but activity picked up once the air cleared and the fire could breathe and grow.
The cause of the Alexander Mountain fire remains under investigation. Anyone with information about the cause and origin of the fire can call the Forest Service Law Enforcement Tip Line at 303-275-5266.
Jennifer Coll waited to go until a sheriff’s deputy knocked on her door.
She didn’t want to leave her home of 31 years on Wild Lane, even after the Alexander Mountain fire dropped a thin layer of ash on the furniture and lights inside, and her head ached from the smoke.
But when the deputy showed up, Coll, 73, knew it was time to evacuate.
“Kind of like a kid who’s been caught,” she said. “I knew the jig was up.”
On Tuesday, she and her husband packed up their little red camper, dubbed Ruby, and loaded up their dog, Torrey. They grabbed the birth certificates, passports, the deed to the house.Nothing sentimental, because there was too much to bring.
She’s evacuated four times over the decades, for fires and floods, but the home has always stood fast, unscathed. She’s optimistic it will stay that way this time, too.
“It’s home,” Coll said.
Every evacuation brings its own challenges, she said. This time, they ended up in the parking lot of Foundations Church, which was activated as an emergency shelter in partnership with the Red Cross.
The shelter had about 10 people staying in the building and another 12 sheltering in RVs in the parking lot on Thursday, Red Cross shelter supervisor Gary Zawilinski said. Many evacuees were staying with family, friends, or in hotels, he added. At its peak on Tuesday night, the shelter saw 42 residents.
On Thursday, Coll sat in a camping chair under a canopy providing shade and waited for the all-clear to go home. She mused about the building’s survival all these years.
“I think we’re in a magic zone, a blessed zone,” she said. “Even the Thompson flood stopped a few feet before it got to our place.”
At Jamoka Joe’s coffee stand on U.S. 34 on the western edge of Loveland, owner Christine Williams watched the traffic on the highway go from the normal summer bustle to something more serious this week.
“People were just racing up that road, and you know why they’re going,” she said. “It’s been kind of emotional seeing all the trucks coming down with their animals and their horses.”
The scene reminded her of the Cameron Peak fire, which burned through the national forest in 2020.
“People are taking it seriously because they know how fast it can go,” she said.
She closed the coffee stand – which she lives beside, now just outside the evacuation zone – on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but reopened Thursday, hoping to help refill firefighters’ water bottles or help in any other way she can, Williams said.
She saw a few regulars, but business on Thursday was slow. The initial rush of the fire evacuations and fight was settling into a more steady pace, she said.
“It’s just been a lot of intensity,” she said. “You could feel it.”
Stone Canyon fire near Lyons
Access the latest evacuation map here
Last updated at 8 p.m.
Containment on the Stone Canyon fire grew to 30% Thursday night as officials confirmed one person was killed in the fire.
County officials confirmed the death after human remains were found in a burned structure in the 2600 block of Eagle Ridge Road, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
The person’s name will be released by the Boulder County Coroner’s Office.
Lyons residents began returning to their homes after several mandatory evacuation zones were lifted Thursday afternoon as officials began to reopen roads and restore power.
Boulder County officials lifted evacuation orders for homes south and west of the fire, including the Stone Canyon and Steamboat Valley neighborhoods; the town of Lyons north of U.S. 36; and homes west of Larimer County Road 37E.
Blue Mountain Road is now open between U.S. 36 into Larimer County at County Road 37E and Lone Star Road. Steamboat Valley Road is open to Lewis Lane Trail.
Residents can access Stone Canyon Drive to Eagle Ridge Road and Nolan Road to Eagle Ridge Road.
Power should be returning to homes in the area by 4:30 p.m. and Xcel Energy crews will be nearby Friday to help with relighting gas pilot lights. Large dumpsters will be placed in each neighborhood for spoiled food.
Fire investigators began to ramp up their work near Lyons on Thursday, looking into possible points of origin for the Stone Canyon fire and trying to determine whether humans played a role in igniting the flames.
The Stone Canyon fire burning on more than 1,500 acres of land in Boulder County killed one person, injured four firefighters and charred at least five homes on Wednesday.
Firefighters had gained 20% containment on the 1,553-acre Stone Canyon fire as of Thursday afternoon, and the flames barely spread overnight, Boulder County officials said.
Two firefighters were hurt after experiencing medical issues while fighting the fire but are doing okay, incident command spokesperson Jamie Barker said Thursday.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials previously said four firefighters were injured but did not specify the nature of their injuries.
On Thursday, atrained yellow Lab named Ash was helping investigators by sniffing for hydrocarbons around burned structures at the top of Stone Canyon.
Investigators with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also have deployed to Lyons and are looking into tips that the Stone Canyon fire may have been human-caused, said said Todd Hedglin, fire investigations chief for the state.
This marks the first time the state’s fire investigations team has gotten involved on this large of a scale. In 2023, state lawmakers approved funds to develop the unit, run by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.
The team consists of ten investigators and four trained dogs.
“I’ve got investigators peppered around the state,” Hedglin said. “This is huge.”
ATF regional spokeswoman Crystal McCoy confirmed the deployment of these ATF “certified fire investigators” — highly trained special agents, she said — to support state and local police investigators looking into the origins of the Stone Canyon fire.
“They can rapidly deploy, help with scene examination, identify, collect, and analyze evidence among other things.”
No details were released Thursday on the investigations.
Kate Newell went back with her three teens to their house at the base of Stone Canyon Thursday evening
On Tuesday, she and the kids saw smoke and then flames burning down from Eagle Ridge, above their house, less than a mile away. In less than an hour the four of them made their evacuation from the north edge of Lyons to a friend’s home in Longmont. They got “all the sentimental stuff” such as albums that they’d consolidated in preparation for an eventual evacuation along with 3 cats, 1 dog and 1 gecko lizard.
It was an ordeal, Newell said.
“Most of it was just emotional management. We all were just at different places of being scared and concerned. It was a matter of validating everybody’s concerns.”
On Thursday evening, after hearing from neighbors they could make it back into their area, they smiled as they unloaded and settled in again. A small bear wandered around their house and they laughed to see it.
“We feel like there’s no more weight on us,” Newell said. “We feel relieved.”
Hundreds of residents evacuated from the Stone Canyon and other areas north of Lyons that burned in the fire have not yet been allowed to return to their homes.
What started Tuesday afternoon as a small, 30-acre fire near Lyonsquickly grew to more than 1,500 acres, forcing evacuations.
The fire did not see significant growth Wednesday or overnight into Thursday, officials said. They declined to release further details about the person who died and said investigators were at the home where human remains were found.
Less air support will be sent to the Stone Canyon fire Thursday as long as the flames remain calm, Boulder officials said in a morning update. Instead, fire officials will direct planes and helicopters to fires that are seeing more growth.
Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson said it’s difficult to tell exactly how many buildings have been affected by the fire because there’s a large number of outbuildings — including barns and sheds — in the area that have been destroyed.
Rough boundaries of the mandatory evacuation zone Thursday include Bear Trap Gulch and Cattle Drive Road in Larimer County to the north; Rabbit Mountain and Carter Lake Reservoir to the east; Indian Mountain and U.S. 36 in Lyons to the south; and Elk Ridge and the end of Hell Canyon Road to the west.
As of Wednesday morning, Boulder County officials had sent mandatory evacuation notices to 2,286 contacts, the sheriff’s office said.
Several roads are closed in the area for firefighting efforts, including Blue Mountain Road, Steamboat Valley Road, Stone Canyon Drive, Nolan Drive and North 53rd Street.
Lake Shore fire near Gross Reservoir
Last updated at 12:15 p.m.
Access the latest evacuation map here
The Lake Shore fire burned six acres of land near Gross Reservoir in Boulder County before firefighters knocked it out, fire officials said.
As of 9 a.m. Thursday, Boulder officials said all evacuation orders and road closures in the area had been lifted.
“Residents are able to go back home,” Boulder County spokesperson Carrie Haverfield said Thursday, confirming the fire had been fully contained. “That fire is just about out.”
Residents will continue to see firefighting equipment in the area as crews mop up after the fire, and should drive slowly, Boulder officials said Thursday. Xcel Energy will also be working in the area to restore gas service.
As of Wednesday night, fire officials were talking to two people they believe accidentally started the fire. No arrests had been made as of Thursday.
One structure was “lost” during the fire, according to a Thursday morning update from fire officials.Live helicopter footage from 9News on Wednesdayshowed a home destroyed by the fire.
On Wednesday, Mountain View Fire Rescue spokesperson Rick Tillery said a second structure was “impacted” by the fire.
Bucktail fire near Nucla
Last updated at 3:30 p.m.
A new 164-acre wildfire is burning northeast of Nucla on the Western Slope, the fire officials said Thursday.
Multiple agencies are responding to the Bucktail fire burning 7 miles northeast of Nucla in Montrose County, Nucla and Naturita Fire Department officials said in a Facebook post.
The fire is not contained and still growing as of 3 p.m. as crews from Nucla, Naturita, Norwood and the Bureau of Land Management respond to the blaze.
Water is being pulled from hydrants on the outskirts of Nucla by tanker trucks and carried to the fire, and people should avoid the intersection of East Fifth Avenue and 29 Road and the area of 25 Mesa Road.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Originally Published: August 1, 2024 at 7:47 a.m.
