Fire crews battled a 40-acre wildfire Monday in the Roosevelt National Forest, 15 miles west of Fort Collins.
A total of 50 local, state and federal firefighters worked to contain the Paradise Fire off Buckhorn Road. No evacuations were ordered.
Firefighters were expected to battle the flames through the night, with air tankers arriving to help this morning, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The cause of the fire hadn’t been determined Monday night. Smoke could be seen from downtown Fort Collins throughout the afternoon, officials said.
Crews from the Forest Service, National Park Service, Larimer County Emergency Services, Colorado State Forest Service, Poudre Fire Authority and Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department tackled the fire after it began Monday.
Though Colorado’s wildfire season traditionally lasts from May through September, much of northern Colorado remained under a “high” fire risk on the U.S. Forest Service’s national danger assessment.
The mountains along the northern Front Range, including the Roosevelt National Forest, had a “very high” fire risk, according to the map.
So far this year, Colorado’s wildland fires have been slightly above the annual average for acres burned over the past 10 years, which is 130,465 acres, according to the state forester’s office.
The National Interagency Fire Season recorded 970 Colorado wildfires that burned 139,766 acres through September.
Colorado was far below average in 2007, when 26,535acres burned.
In 2002, a record year that included the massive Hayman Fire, Colorado had 244,252 acres go up in flames.
