Beulah, Colo. – Fresh crews and more aircraft joined the battle against an 11,700-acre wildfire in southern Colorado today, hoping to pounce on the blaze while the weather was on their side.
“It’s a good day to fight fire,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Dave Steinke said. “We want to take advantage of the weather today.” About 100 of the 5,000 people forced from their homes were allowed to return late Monday. There was no immediate word on when other evacuation orders would be lifted.
No injuries had been reported and no homes had burned, but more than 1,000 houses, outbuildings and other structures were listed as threatened. The fire was burning in dry, steep terrain in the Wet Mountains about 150 miles south of Denver.
Steinke said temperatures dropped, winds were light and humidity rose today, but hotter and dryer weather was expected to return Wednesday.
With about 800 firefighters, eight helicopters, seven air tankers and 58 fire trucks on the scene, fire managers were optimistic, he said.
The lightning-caused fire, which started Wednesday, was 30 percent contained but had the potential to erupt again, Steinke said.
“There’s enough interior islands (within the charred area) that are unburned that another big wind event could get this thing going again,” he said.
Firefighters shored up containment lines around the 50-home Greenwood subdivision, allowing residents to go home Monday for the first time in two nights.
“They’re going to see a little bit of a change of scenery,” said Brian Scott, a fire information officer. “Firefighters had to cut off the lower limbs of trees, pull firewood from the homes, moved picnic tables and in some cases, they even cleaned the gutters.” Flames advanced to about a few dozen yards of some homes, Scott said. Fire engines were ordered to patrol neighborhoods through the night, searching for smoldering trees, brush and grass that could flare up and destroy houses.
Most evacuees waited patiently for word that they could return home as they met for coffee and searched for news.
“I thought I had lost it (the house) when we had to leave,” said Beulah resident Frank Nemick, a firefighter for Pueblo. “But I got the call … that it was still standing.” “Sitting around, waiting to see if your house is going to burn down is the strangest feeling,” said Angie Griggs, 49.
“Now we’re just laughing about it because what else can you do? You can’t cry,” said Griggs, who had to take the day off because she forgot to grab socks and work clothes when her family left their home.
About 250 Boy Scouts and 30 staffers at the San Isabel Scout Ranch were taken to a high school near Pueblo, about 25 miles from the fire.
“It’s not exactly what we had planned for summer camp, but it will be memorable,” said John Stauffer, an assistant scoutmaster with a troop of about 30 boys from Olathe, Kan.
