A wildfire burning near a small mountain town in southwestern Colorado nearly doubled in size over the course of two days this week, causing containment to drop and forcing dozens of homes to evacuate a month after lightning first started the blaze.
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The Elk fire has charred 6,213 acres, or nearly 10 square miles, just outside of Lake City in Hinsdale County, fire officials said in an update Saturday morning.
Containment dropped to 34%, from 42% on Thursday, as the fire grew by more than 4 square miles.
Forty-two structures in the San Juan Springs subdivision north of Lake City are under mandatory evacuation because of the fire. The entire town of Lake City, home to approximately 400 people, is on a pre-evacuation warning.
The mandatory evacuation zone includes San Juan Springs, Rocky Springs, Silver Springs and Eagle drives; Elk Road; and Deer Trail. Updated evacuation information is available online.
Fire managers doubled the number of people fighting the fire since Thursday, with 104 personnel now on scene and more on the way.
Crews are focusing on protecting homes and structures closest to the fire and are laying hoses, placing water tanks and installing other water-handling equipment, fire officials said Saturday.
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Officials are also developing a plan for what to do if the fire jumps Colorado 149 to the east.
Two western divisions of the wildfire don’t have any staff or firefighters working on them because the team’s highest priority is where the fire is moving now, which is toward homes and structures to the south and southeast, spokesperson Bill Jackson said.
There’s not a lot to burn to the west of the fire other than trees and vegetation. Fire managers use the term “values at risk” to describe things a wildfire could damage or destroy: homes, buildings, highways, power lines and other infrastructure, and there are not many of those, other than a few roads, west of the fire.
“If we need to staff them, we will,” Jackson said. “As we need to shift resources around, we have those divisions created already with the ability to transfer resources. It doesn’t mean they’re unstaffed forever.”
A new incident management team will rotate in to take command of the fire on Sunday morning.
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