Boulder County – A fire that may have been started by a weed trimmer torched about 55 acres on a residential hillside north of Boulder and forced the evacuation of 23 homes Thursday.
By nightfall, cool air, slurry drops and the efforts of about 120 firefighters had quieted the North Foothills fire. But firefighters monitored hot spots into the evening.
The fire was 70 percent contained by 9 p.m. and authorities from the 18 agencies that responded expected to have the fire contained by midnight.
Authorities received a call just after 3 p.m., and by 4 p.m. the blaze had ripped up the steep, forested area. At one point, the fire burned grassland about 50 yards from large homes in the Foothills Ranch neighborhood near the intersection of U.S. 36 and Nelson Road.
Officials believe a relative of one of the residents unwittingly started the blaze by setting down a weed trimmer in grass to get more gasoline, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Joe Gang said.
“Apparently it was so hot after being used it sparked it,” Gang said.
A large air tanker and a single-engine air tanker made at least five slurry drops, to the applause of residents who gathered on the roadsides monitoring their homes.
Meanwhile, firefighters in 10 brush trucks and six engines battled the blaze from the ground.
Residents grabbed what they could before leaving their homes. One man had several paintings in the back of a pickup truck.
“It’s pretty hard to walk out of there and not know what to take,” said Vondell Martin, looking up the hillside at her home in the Mountain Ridge subdivision.
But fears subsided as the fire settled down at dusk.
“We are very, very lucky there wasn’t more wind,” said Michael Osterman, president of the Lake of the Pines neighborhood.
By nightfall, residents in the Mountain Ridge subdivision were allowed to return to their homes. But residents of the seven-home Foothills Ranch subdivision were not allowed back in because of excessive smoke and heavy firefighting equipment in the area.
Many residents remarked that homes in the area have dodged four fires since the Overland fire two years ago.
“It’s getting ridiculous,” said Ruth Avedon. “We just keep praying.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
