Editor's note: We're making this story free to read due to public safety concerns. But we rely on the support of subscribers to be able to do this work. Please help us by subscribing to the Coloradoan.
Cameron Peak Fire crews established a containment line Thursday stretching along Pingree Park Road from Colorado Highway 14 to Buckhorn Road (Larimer County Road 44H), nearly doubling containment on the largest fire in Larimer County history and one of the largest in the state.
Containment increased from 8% to 15%, the largest one-day gain since the fire ignited Aug. 13. The new containment line is along the eastern edge, about 20 miles west of Fort Collins.
“This was a really key piece for us,” Cory Carlson, a planning operations trainee for the team overseeing firefighting efforts, said in a Friday morning video update. “As a lot of you know, this is where the fire made a huge run over the course of three days, and this was a huge area of concern. It was our No. 1 priority for a long time.”
The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office downgraded evacuations Thursday from mandatory to voluntary in several areas just beyond the new containment line. Those areas included the Poudre Canyon along Colorado 14 from Kelly Flats east to Stove Prairie Landing, along Stove Prairie Road (Larimer County Road 27) to Buckhorn Road (Larimer County Road 44H) and west from Buckhorn Road to Pennock Pass.
“We’ll continue to have a pretty decent presence in here,” Carlson said. “We’ll patrol this daily with engines. We’ll continue to look for hot spots, and we’ll be in here for a long, long time.”
The Cameron Peak Fire remains at 102,596 acres with 997 firefighters on the fire, according to InciWeb.
Containment efforts
The new containment line tied in with one that had been completed Tuesday along Colorado 14 to from Glen Echo to the Pingree Park Road held. That line, the first manmade containment of the fire, added 4% containment to the 4% natural containment provided by alpine vegetation on the fire's west side.
Crews were are working to extend the containment line west from Buckhorn Road just north of Colorado State University's Mountain campus at Pingree Park toward the Comanche Peak area, he said. Work on that line was expected to be completed Friday or early Saturday, he said.
Crews have steadily built fire lines around the fire's 237-mile perimeter, but fire lines do not equal containment. For a containment designation to be attained, the line must hold up against active fire. Fire management teams will not designate an area contained if there is any chance the fire could "come back to life'' and allow the fire to jump over the constructed line.
Carlson, part of the Southwest Area Incident Command Team 3 overseeing firefighting efforts, said containment is close on the fire's southwestern edge, too, along Long Draw Road to Colorado 14 near Joe Wright Reservoir.
The primary area of concern now, he said, is on the northern area of the fire shaped like a thumb that stretches along the Laramie River Road (Larimer County Road 103) toward Crystal Lakes and Red Feather Lakes and the county's Kilpecker communications tower off Deadman Road (Larimer County Road 86). Additional resources were moving into that area Friday, he said, to help build a containment line along Green Ridge and to reinforce indirect fire lines along Deadman and Manhattan (Larimer County Road 69) roads.
Officials have developed a plan, he said, for protecting the Glen Haven and Estes Park areas, should the fire advance in that direction again. No firefighting activities are actually taking place in that area yet, he said.
Forest Service reduces closures related to fire
U.S. Forest Service trails in Poudre Canyon, east of Stove Prairie Road, and in areas east of Red Feather Lakes have been reopened because of increased containment and decreased activity from the Cameron Peak Fire, officials with the Canyon Lakes Ranger District of the Arapahoe-Roosevelt National Forest said Friday.
Areas that remain closed are generally those west of Larimer County Road 67J and Stove Prairie Road, east of the Colorado State Forest State Park; south of Larimer County Road 80C and north of Rocky Mountain National Park.
All campgrounds in the Canyon Lakes Ranger District, both inside and outside the closure area, remain closed as do trails in the Red Feather Lakes area.
Air quality alert
For the second straight day, Fort Collins and much of the Front Range and Eastern Plains are under an action alert day, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Smoke transported from Colorado and out-of-state wildfires will result in fine particulate concentrations reaching unhealthy levels for sensitive groups. For statewide conditions, forecasts and advisories, visit https://ift.tt/2eBprJx
Reporter Miles Blumhardt looks for stories that impact your life. Be it news, outdoors, sports — you name it, he wants to report it. Have a story idea? Contact him at milesblumhardt@coloradoan.com or on Twitter @MilesBlumhardt. Support his work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
"peak" - Google News
September 19, 2020 at 12:04AM
https://ift.tt/2RGo3Fw
Cameron Peak Fire crews make largest one-day containment gain - Coloradoan
"peak" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KZvTqs
https://ift.tt/2Ywz40B
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Cameron Peak Fire crews make largest one-day containment gain - Coloradoan"
Post a Comment