Five wildfires continued to burn across Colorado on Thursday, threatening thousands of homes and buildings as state leaders braced for an increase in hot, dry and windy weather that could create extreme fire behavior over the Fourth of July weekend.
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The Aspen Acres fire in Custer and Pueblo counties charred 55,391 acres, or 86 square miles, as of Thursday evening and has likely destroyed more than 200 homes and buildings, Gov. Jared Polis said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
“If you care about our state, if you care about our firefighters, do not use fireworks or other types of flames this Fourth of July weekend,” Polis said. “We cannot handle another major incident in our state right now.”
National Weather Service forecasters issued a red flag warning for dangerous fire weather throughout central, southern and western Colorado, where the forecast calls for humidity levels as low as 4%, wind gusts up to 35 mph and temperatures nearing triple digits.
Stan Hilkey, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, said he’s seen street signs melted to the ground by the Aspen Acres fire.
“These conditions are extreme, and they create dangerous fires,” he said.
Firefighting resources across Colorado are spread thin, Chief Mike Morgan, director of the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control, said at the Thursday news conference. There are now 55 state and federal aircraft fighting fires across Colorado, including helicopters and large and single-engine air tankers.
Morgan’s biggest concern is new fires starting, he said.
“We are tapped out on resources and we’re trying to bring things in,” he said “Any time we get a new ignition, we’re probably going to divert an aircraft from another fire so we don’t have another 15,000-acre fire that we don’t have 1,000 firefighters and aircraft to put on.”
Fire officials identified the Aspen Acres fire as the No. 1 firefighting priority in the country earlier this week, and on Thursday morning a complex incident management team from Alaska took command of the wildfire.
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The team ordered 100 additional fire engines that are heading to Colorado from California, Incident Commander Jake Livingston said. They also ordered 17 hand crews, six dozers and 15 water tenders.
Livingston said it’s hard to predict when firefighters may gain any containment on the fire because of how fast it’s growing every day. The biggest concern for fire crews right now is extreme weather, and their main focus is protecting life and property, he said.
Firefighters gained 10% containment on the 27,382-acre Ferris fire near Dolores on Thursday and increased containment to 65% on the deadly Snyder fire in Utah and Mesa County, which has burned 30,193 acres.
The 18,004-acre Gold Mountain fire near Ouray and the 2,355-acre Willow fire near Leadville are still burning with no containment, fire officials said.
Together, the five fires have consumed 133,325 acres, or 208 square miles, a slightly larger area than the city of Colorado Springs. The wildfires are threatening nearly 4,000 homes and structures, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Mandatory evacuations remain in place for all but the Snyder fire, and U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management officials have closed public lands around all of the fires for public and firefighter safety. Updated closure and evacuation orders are available from local law enforcement agencies and may be posted on inciweb.wildfire.gov.
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