DURANGO—Authorities are investigating whether at least 16 wildland fires in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico were deliberately set.
The fires were reported between Tuesday and Sunday in La Plata and Archuleta counties in Colorado and San Juan County in New Mexico. No structures were burned.
The first fire was reported at about 9:15 p.m. Sunday in Oxford, about 10 miles southeast of Durango and 10 miles north of the New Mexico border. Eight other fires were reported in the area by Monday afternoon.
Bill Shank, operations chief for the Los Pinos Fire District, called the fires suspicious but said investigators had no witness accounts.
“We don’t have anything to go on as far as that goes,” he said.
Firefighters responded to four other fires on Tuesday, one on Southern Ute tribal land.
Rich Graeber, chief of the Upper Pine Fire Protection District, said the other fires in New Mexico may have some tie to the Colorado fires.
Graeber said officials had received several vehicle descriptions in connection with the fires but hadn’t had time to compare them.
He asked residents to report anything that seems suspicious.
“It’s somebody who sees someone out of place that’s going to break this wide open for us,” he said.
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Information from: Durango Herald,
