Several major wildfires continued to burn Wednesday morning across Colorado.
Together the fires have burned thousands of acres and show no signs of stopping, according to fire officials across the state.
Gov. Jared Polis declared disaster emergencies for multiple fires Tuesday, which activates a state emergency operations plan and directs state officials to “take all necessary and appropriate actions to assist with response, recovery and mitigation efforts” in the fires.
Click here to skip to a specific fire: Quarry fire | Stone Creek fire | Alexander Mountain fire | Wildfire map
Quarry fire near Deer Creek Canyon
Last updated at 8 a.m.
Nearly 600 homes in Jefferson County were evacuated overnight Wednesday after a wildfire broke out near Deer Creek Canyon and more evacuations could be on the way, sheriff’s officials said.
“Everything is stacked against us,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Mark Techmeyer said in a Wednesday morning briefing. “We’ve got low resources, we’ve got treacherous terrain, we’ve got very flammable fuel.”
Techmeyer said crews from more than a dozen fire agencies responded to Jefferson County on Wednesday, but the two other major fires burning near Lyons and Loveland have spread Colorado’s fire resources thin.
As of 2 a.m. Wednesday, the Quarry fire was burning on an estimated 130 acres of Jefferson County land just west of Grizzly Drive and still growing, according to the sheriff’s office. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
Evacuations started just before midnight Tuesday when sheriff’s officials announced mandatory evacuations for the Deer Creek Mesa, Sampson and Maxwell subdivisions southwest of Ken Caryl.
County officials said the fire was discovered by a sheriff’s deputy around 9 p.m. and was moving southeast.
By 1 a.m. Wednesday, 300 homes in the three subdivisions were being evacuated as deputies and firefighters knocked on doors and sent out emergency alerts, sheriff’s officials said.
As the fire continued to grow overnight, sheriff’s officials announced mandatory evacuations for another 275 homes in the McKinney and Murphy subdivisions.
Multiple agencies responded to the late-night blaze, including crews from West Metro Fire Rescue, South Metro Fire Rescue, Inter-Canyon Fire, the North Folk Fire Department and Jefferson County Open Space.
As of Wednesday morning, 70 to 80 firefighters were working on the ground to fight the flames, Techmeyer said.
“We’ve requested numerous types of aircraft for air support and we won’t know if we’re going get any air support today or not for some time,” Techmeyer said. “…We have two big, big fires going on. This one is still only at 130 acres, but it’s the terrain and the population that’s the tricky part.”
No injuries have been reported and no homes have been lost, Techmeyer said.
Stone Creek fire near Lyons
Last updated at 8 a.m.
What started Tuesday afternoon as a small, 30-acre fire near Lyons quickly grew to more than 1,300 acres, forcing evacuations, fire officials said.
As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, the Stone Creek fire in Boulder County had charred 1,320 acres with no containment, according to county officials.
Mandatory evacuation orders were sent out less than an hour after the fire was reported and quickly expanded into Larimer County, fire officials said. Shifting winds and the fire’s quick spread forced evacuations in the town of Lyons later that afternoon.
At least one home was fully engulfed in flames Tuesday, and county officials received unconfirmed reports of two other structures destroyed in the fire.
“The conditions are about as bad as they can be to fight this fire,” Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson said in a briefing Tuesday afternoon. “I expect it will take days for us to be able to really manage it.”
The wildfire is burning on land just 8 miles south of the Alexander Mountain fire, but fire officials said they are hopeful the two blazes will not connect.
About 70 firefighters and multiple aircraft worked to slow the fire down Tuesday and protect both structures and people in the area, according to fire officials. Several aircraft were on the scene within minutes after being diverted from the Alexander Mountain fire to the north.
Rough boundaries of the mandatory evacuation zone Wednesday include Bear Trap Gultch 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.
Several roads are closed in the area Wednesday morning for firefighting efforts, including Blue Mountain Road, Steamboat Valley Road, Stone Canyon Drive, Nolan Drive and North 53rd Street.
Alexander Mountain fire near Loveland
Last updated at 8 a.m.
The Alexander Mountain fire raced across more than 5,000 acres of national forest land near Loveland on Tuesday, fueled by high temperatures and low humidity, fire officials said.
As of 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the fire was burning on 5,080 acres in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests north of U.S. 34, according to U.S. Forest Service officials. Monday night, officials had estimated flames had charred 950 acres.
“With the low relative humidities overnight, we really saw the fire continue to burn throughout the night,” incident commander Mike Smith said in a briefing Tuesday morning.
Dry fuels, high temperatures and low humidity throughout the day Tuesday continued to make firefighting conditions difficult and fueled the spread of the flames, according to forest officials.
Fire officials said they still don’t know what sparked the fire Monday morning, and crews have been unable to make a map of the wildfire’s footprint because of how quickly it’s changing. There was no containment as of Wednesday morning.
Thousands of evacuation orders have been issued.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Larimer County officials had sent mandatory evacuation notices to 3,245 contacts and more than 800 contacts remained on voluntary evacuation notice, the sheriff’s office said.
Contacts do not equal the number of people evacuated because households may have one or multiple contacts on file with the county’s emergency alert system, according to sheriff’s officials.
The rough boundaries of the mandatory evacuation zone include Storm Mountain to the north, Devil’s Backbone Open Space to the east, Indian Mountain to the south and Crosier Mountain to the west.
The Crosier Mountain area — including Dunraven Glade Road and Steamside Drive, as well as the area north of the Dunraven trailhead — and Devil’s Backbone Open Space are under voluntary evacuation orders Wednesday.
Fire officials said residents in voluntary evacuation areas should gather essential items and prepare to evacuate.
The blaze primarily grew to the west, north and east Tuesday in the National Forests, and shifting winds began pushing the fire farther north, fire officials said. The fire has not yet jumped U.S. 34 to the south and officials hope rocky terrain will slow down the fire’s growth.
No structures have been confirmed as damaged or destroyed in the Alexander Mountain fire, and no injuries have been reported as of Wednesday morning.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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