The burning southeast of Salida has grown , officials said Friday morning, and a strong aerial attack is expected to tackle the burn.
Fire is at 15, 754 acres. 645 firefighters, 7 helicopters and maybe some fixed-wing 'loaner' aircraft will tackle fire today
— Hayden Pass Fire (@HaydenPassFire)
About 650 firefighters have been assigned , with seven helicopters and possibly additional planes headed to the fire lines Friday. Commanders said at a morning media briefing that they have access to the “very large air tanker,” a three-jet DC-10 capable of dropping mass amounts of fire retardant.
The burn area is south of U.S. 50, near the small community of Coaldale. One of firefighters’ main goals is to protect homes and other buildings by completing risk mitigation, including with installation of sprinkler systems and even going as far as cleaning storm gutters.
The new acreage Thursday — about 1,000 acres — came in the wilderness south of homes and other buildings, according to officials. That area has been unsafe for firefighters because of the steep terrain and dead trees that have fueled strong blaze behavior.
One official described it as “almost vertical in areas.”
More than 140 homes, an RV resort and a children’s summer camp have been evacuated. One summer cabin has been destroyed in the fire, but no other structure loss has been reported.
The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office allowed some resident to return home in three locations for about two hours on Friday morning to check on their houses.
Officials have noted that evacuees have been feeling anxious but asked for patience while they work on containing the wildfire. Several community meetings — with hundreds of attendees — have been held over the past few days.
A 250% Time lapse of Flames from Thursday at the
— Adam Knapik (@adamknapik)
After the fire was sparked July 8 by lightning, crews searched for smoke over the weekend but were unable to locate the blaze. Smoke reappeared Sunday, and the fire had grown to 5,000 acres by Sunday night.
On Monday, strong winds and dry conditions pushed the fire’s boundaries thousands of acres to where it now burns.
Officials have cautioned that the fire is likely to burn for an extended period. The estimated date of full containment is Oct. 1.
“This fire overwhelmed our initial response fairly quickly,” Jim Pitts, district ranger for the Pike & San Isabel National Forests, said on Thursday. “We’re still very early in this incident.”
Updated photos of the
— CSP Florence (@CSP_Florence)