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A portion of the Cameron Peak Fire is burning a mile or less from the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park, the incident command team estimated Tuesday.
The fire, which ignited Aug. 13, is now burning more than 21,000 acres, the incident command team announced Tuesday morning. The fire, some 15 miles as a crow flies from Red Feather Lakes and 40 miles from Fort Collins, remains at 0% containment.
The Long Draw Road area of the fire close to Rocky Mountain National Park's boundary was "one of the areas with the most activity Monday," operations section chief Jake Livingston said in a Tuesday morning video briefing posted on the Cameron Peak Fire Facebook page Tuesday morning. Livingston said firefighting personnel continue monitor the fire's proximity to the park as well as a burnoff that was conducted several days ago around a cabin at the end of Long Draw Road.
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Fire activity on the north side of the Cameron Peak Fire is still about 12 miles away from the Red Feather Lake and Crystal Lakes area, Livingston said, adding that's "still quite a ways to go with a lot of really steep terrain and areas that are hard to get into."
Efforts to build control lines away from the direct perimeter of the fire are coming together — Livingston said crews continue to prep and finish lines in different areas, using a combination of hand crews and machine work. Hotshot crews is also being used to assist with lines in the Dadd Gulch area, Livingston said.
"As we get closer to finishing the control lines further out from the fire, we’ll look at opportunities to move in closer," Livingston said. "We did look at some areas several days ago, but given the fire activity, the terrain, all the beetle kill and all the dead and down from the beetle kill, it was really not safe to put firefighters directly on the perimeter of the fire."
Structure protection efforts
Structure protection crews are working along the Colorado Highway 14 corridor and are monitoring fire activity on Green Ridge as well as prepping structures from that area to the east. Efforts are also focused in the Pingree Park Road area and the CSU mountain campus.
Also on crews' radar are 44 structures identified to the north of the fire, along Laramie River Road. Efforts to protect those structures are ongoing, Livingston said.
As of Tuesday morning's update, the fire had grown to 21,017 acres.
There are 742 firefighting personnel and multiple aircraft responding to the blaze Tuesday.
Weather forecast, air quality
Temperatures in the area are forecast to reach the upper 70s Tuesday, with 15-25% relative humidity and light, variable winds and a chance of thunderstorms.
Multiple fires burning across Colorado and the West, including the Cameron Peak Fire in the Poudre Canyon, are leading to bad air quality in Fort Collins. An air quality "action day alert" is in effect Tuesday for Fort Collins and much of Colorado's Front Range.
Ozone and fine particulate concentrations may both reach the "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" category, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment.
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Coloradoan content coach Rebecca Powell contributed to this report.
Sarah Kyle is a content coach at the Coloradoan. Contact her at sarahkyle@coloradoan.com. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
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Cameron Peak Fire now burning a mile or less from Rocky Mountain National Park's edge - Coloradoan
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