A wind-whipped wildfire that started near Norwood in the San Miguel Canyon corridor has grown to more than 3,200 acres this afternoon as flames moved mostly into parkland and authorities struggle with complex terrain.
The 45- to 60-mph gusts that kicked up Saturday may have knocked a tree onto a powerline, sparking the fire, San Miguel County Commissioner Joan May said.
Officials with the Montrose Interagency Fire Management Unit, which is battling the blaze with dozers and more than 180 firefighters, said downed powerlines caused the blaze.
There was no estimate on when crews would contain the fast-moving blaze, said Chris Barth, spokesman for the interagency response team.
“This is a particularly complicated fire,” he said. There’s a lot of diverse terrain – valley bottoms to mesa tops, and there’s a lot of fuel.”
Given the soggy spring, May said the fire has taken local residents by surprise.
“It’s been a pretty wet spring, but the wind just dried everything out so quickly. Lots of trees are down all over,” May said. “The people in Norwood are just paying attention and on alert.”
Authorities believe the fire started Saturday afternoon around near the intersection of Colorado Highway 145 and Goodenough Road, about a mile southeast of Norwood.
Areas bordering the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service property — Wrights Mesa, Iron Springs, Brown Ranch and MacKensie Mesa — have been asked to clear downed trees and dried brush from around their homes. They’ve been asked to ready their personal belongings and livestock for a possible evacuation.
Along Sanborn Park Road, the three caretakers at the Cascabel private fly fishing resort spent Saturday night crammed into a camper trailer at the top of Sanborn Hill.
They returned to their property today, but remain ready to evacuate if the winds change, said Tyler Cramer.
“On top of Sanborn you could see a huge plume of smoke. It seems to have calmed down a little bit, but it’s really windy,” said Kramer, who brought the property’s two cats and dog with him for the evacuation. “It was so windy and smoky that we couldn’t let them out.”
While the rising tower of grey smoke is also visible from Norwood, no evacuation warnings have been issued there, members of the community report.
The flames — which have soared 300 feet into the air at their highest point — have spread over diverse terrain, which has complicated containment efforts, Barth said.
The blaze has climbed rocky canyon walls, engulfed mesa tops and taken hold in narrow valley bottoms, Barth said.
Crews worked through the night and used the morning to set strategy and bulldoze new fire lines, he said.
“It’s definitely a significant fire because of the size and complexity. We’re having to be cautious with the terrain,” Barth said. “The continued high winds today are also adding to the potential for fire growth.”
Residents can sign up for potential evacuation notices through the county’s WENS program at .
Highway 145, closed Saturday, was reopened overnight. although the fire is raging on both sides of the main artery to Telluride, said San Miguel County Commissioner Art Goodtimes.
He said air support has been stymied by the high winds, and even more fire-resistant trees, such as willows and cottonwoods, are burning.
“It is scary. Because of the winds, it’s been really dry,” Goodtimes said. “The spring mud is all dried up. Whatever started it, it just took off from there.”
This is the second time in a year that wildfire has struck the area. In mid-July about five miles northwest of Norwood, the 877-acre Grammar Fire burned into a subdivision.
The blaze endangered homes and cast dust devils and smoke into the town. It took authorities four days to contain the fire.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or defender@denverpost.cam.
