Fire
Already the largest fire in Colorado’s history, the Cameron Peak Fire just surpassed another milestone – the first fire in Colorado history to exceed 200,000-acres.
The fire, which started burning on August 13 in Larimer County, is now 203,253 acres and 62% contained.
In Garfield County, the Pine Gulch Fire, which sparked on July 31 of this year, reached 139,007 acres before full containment.
During a daily briefing, spokesman Dave Stephan said the fire is mostly unsecured along the east and south perimeters, including a fire branch that spread east during high winds last week. He added that crews would work to build containment lines along those areas Sunday.
“Right now there is no wind, and they’ve done a good job of holding County Road 27, so they’re not anticipating any kind of issue. One thing we have talked about, if the fire did progress east, as you get down off the foothills, there are a lot more open areas, it’s a lot more grassy, so you don’t have all the dead timber you do at higher elevations. So that is a buffer, and you have Horsetooth Reservoir as well.”
Dave Stephan
I went to college in Colorado 15 years ago and was always impressed by the vast stretches of dead pine trees. Seemed like the entire state is a tinder box ready to go. Surprised it took this long for the big fires to get rolling.