LEADVILLE — It may be late Monday night or Tuesday morning before Forest Service officials will have a sense of what progress 125 firefighters have made trying to contain the Treasure Fire near Leadville.
As of Sunday evening, the fire was 320 acres and was 10 percent contained.
The fire is roughly 10 miles southwest of Quandary Peak, some 6 miles northwest of Leadville and proximate to Climax Mine and the crest of Fremont Pass. It burns in Birdseye Gulch on the western side of Mosquito Peak.
Crews from Juniper Valley Corrections in Buena Vista arrived Sunday night, adding 23 firefighters to the line.
“We were really lucky to get them,” Forest Service spokeswoman Sarah Gallup said. A a Grayback contract crew out of the Pacific Northwest arrived Monday morning. Command is hoping to get another crew by the end of the day Monday.
The increased acreage from the Sunday morning update is due to controlled burnout happening on the western edge of the fire. Firefighters are lighting the fuels in the fire’s path so there’s nothing for the fire to consume when it approaches that line.
“They light it when there are lots of people there to deal with any trouble that can arise,” Gallup said.
Grassland to the north of the fire is keeping the flames at bay. On Monday, firefighters were preparing the burn line on the southern edge of the fire. That burn could begin Monday afternoon, Gallup said.
The eastern edge of the fire is licking at alpine terrain with minimal alpine fuels. That barrier should keep the fire from breaching the Mosquito Range toward Alma.
