A nearly 3,000-acre wildfire burning near Parachute barely grew overnight Saturday as firefighters continued working to contain the blaze, fire officials reported Sunday.
The Spring Creek fire, which is burning on Bureau of Land Management land to the southwest of Parachute, grew just 15 acres overnight to reach 2,925 acres, or about 4.6 square miles, fire officials reported Sunday.
The fire was 25% contained Sunday and more than 520 firefighting personnel were working the blaze. On Sunday, crews planned to strengthen existing fire containment lines and cool hot spots along the fire’s edge. Firefighters could also do a handful of controlled burns Sunday to help strengthen the fire lines.
The crews are bracing for a potentially hot and windy July 4, which could reinvigorate the fire, officials said. On Sunday, Spring Creek Road and High Mesa Road remained open to local traffic only. There are no evacuations in place.
Aside from the Spring Creek fire, a handful of smaller fires are burning across Colorado, including three fires in the southwest corner of the state.
The Chris Mountain fire west of Pagosa Springs had burned 431 acres, about .7 of a square mile, by Sunday. The nearby Coal Mine fire, burning to the south of Pagosa Springs, had burned 286 acres or about .4 of a square mile, and the even smaller Arkansas Loop fire south of Durango had burned 127 acres, or about .2 of a square mile on Sunday.
Closer to Denver, the Poverty fire had burned about 5 acres on Bureau of Land Management land in Fremont County northwest of Pueblo on Sunday. That small fire was discovered Saturday, according to fire reports.
And to the south, the Titan fire had burned about 928 acres, or 1.5 square miles, on private land near Trinidad in Las Animas County.