A “red flag” fire warning has been posted for wide portions of Colorado including the Denver area and most of the Front Range.
Gusty winds, warm weather, low humidity and dry conditions continue to be a concern for fire officials, who remain alert after battling three wild fires—- two along the Front Range and one on the Eastern Plains — on the same day last week.
Today’s National Weather Service warning extends along the I-25 corridor from the Wyoming border on the north to the New Mexico border on the south. Only a narrow sliver between Castle Rock and Colorado Springs is excluded.
Fort Collins, Greeley, Denver, Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, La Junta and Trinidad are all within the warning area, as is a portion of the central mountains west of Woodland Park, and the southeastern corner of the state.
The warning runs through 6 p.m., the weather service said. Winds could gust up to 50 mph today along the foothills and humidity will likely stay below 15 percent in the widespread warning area.
It all adds up to conditions “favorable…for the rapid growth and spread of wildland fires,” the weather service warns.
Last Thursday, last week hundreds of firefighters, some from as far away as California and the East Coast, were battling the Indian Gulch fire west of Golden when the Burning Tree fire broke out in Douglas County and, later that day, a third that scorched more than 12,000 acres in Lincoln County around the Eastern Plains town of Karval.
The Burning Tree and Lincoln County fires are out, but the Indian Gulch fire, which is 100 percent contained, continues to smolder.
“It’s still simmering,” said Jacki Kelley, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.
Fire officials are keeping tabs on Indian Gulch, which started on March 20 and cost about $2.4 million to fight.
Indian Gulch burned about 1,570 acres and at the peak of the fire about 450 firefighters battled the blaze.
The fire was human caused and it started in Indian Gulch in an area off U.S. Highway 6, quite a distance from the road, Kelley said.
Kelley had no more details on the cause of the fire. No one has been arrested and no suspect has been named.
Franktown Fire Protection District Chief Lee Willis said the tab to fight the Burning Tree fire will likely run between $100,000 and $200,000. That fire scorched 1,600 acres and forced 8,500 people to evacuate.
One home was damaged when shingles on a roof caught fire, but firefighters were able to douse the blaze before it spread to the rest of the house.
Burning Tree, like Indian Gulch, was human caused, Willis said. The fire remains under investigation. Willis declined to disclose further details about the fire’s origin.
Meanwhile, Front Range residents should remain vigilant about the possibilities of new fires, Willis warned, especially as an unseasonably dry and warm month of March comes to a close.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
