New Castle – A grass fire flared up, destroying three homes, late Thursday near an area firefighters had been mopping up earlier in the day.
The 10-acre fire, which crews hope to have under control by this morning, destroyed the three homes in Mesa and threatened three more, The Associated Press reported late Thursday.
The evening fire was about 50 miles away from the New Castle mountain blaze that crews had been fighting for days and were finally mopping up during the day Thursday.
The New Castle fire crews took a bold gamble Wednesday during red-flag wind and heat conditions. They ordered crews to burn out the brushy hillsides across the road from 200 Canyon Creek homes to get rid of fuel and stop a fire that had been marching over ridges toward the structures.
“That is probably some of the best firefighting we have seen. It was a bold maneuver, and it definitely paid off,” said Karl Brauneis, fire information officer for the federal team that took over management of the fire Wednesday night.
Sixty of the 90 evacuated homeowners were allowed back into their homes in Canyon Creek Estates along Interstate 70 as firefighters had about 75 percent of the fire contained. The other families could be allowed to return to their homes today.
The mandatory evacuations had been ordered Monday and Tuesday when the fire blew up after a dry lightning storm rumbled through the area Sunday.
The fire was brought to its knees with the aid of an almost unheard-of amount of air power that was suspended Thursday. Five tankers and three helicopters fought the blaze from the air while nearly 300 firefighters on the ground cut lines and burned out crucial areas.
The fire was mostly under control because of the early tactics, Brauneis said. Fire managers made the decision to burn off brush on the east and northeast flanks of the fire where homes are strung along the Canyon Creek Road draw.
“We could leave it and sit here and wait for it to come to us, or we could go after it,” said Rich Zimmerlee of the Bureau of Land Management.
The wind cooperated and didn’t blow the deliberately set fire across the road or carry ashes onto homes that were as close as 50 yards to the burned areas.
Adam Simons said he and other firefighters were confident of the risky decision as they started the fires with hand-held torches, even as they worked with Storm King Mountain in the background.
“Having Storm King right there makes you think about it and reflect,” he said about the mountain where 14 firefighters died in 1994.
Evacuees Hillery and Bob Oddo were grateful as they checked on their sprawling log home off Canyon Creek Road.
Crews had burned a line about a half-mile from their home to keep the fire that scorched their view from running across oak brush to their home.
“They’ve done a magnificent job,” Hillery Oddo said. “It’s so great to have a house to come home to finally.”
Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said that without a BLM helicopter based at the nearby Rifle airport, the fire might have taken off Monday and burned structures.
“That helicopter is one of many pieces of equipment the BLM is considering moving in the next fire season as part of a national reshuffling designed to put equipment where it will get the most use,” said BLM spokesman David Boyd.
Vallario opposes the move and has been writing to Colorado’s congressional delegation and to BLM officials urging them not to move the copter to Craig.
“It’s an irreplaceable asset, and we need it,” he said.
