Southeastern Colorado residents were ordered to evacuate Sunday afternoon as the rapidly growing Sharpe fire in Oklahoma spread across the state line, according to emergency officials.
As of 11:21 p.m. Sunday, the mandatory evacuations had been lifted for the town of Campo in Baca County and an area bordered to the north by County Road J, to the east by County Road 36, to the west by County Road 24 and to the south by the Colorado-Oklahoma border, .
Emergency officials from Oklahoma at 12:47 p.m. Sunday and at 2:06 p.m.
The Sharpe fire sparked Friday evening in Oklahoma’s Cimarron County and was estimated to have consumed roughly 3,500 acres as of Sunday morning, according to a from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.
By Sunday evening, the burn area had exploded in size to an estimated 28,000 acres, according to a disaster emergency declaration from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. It’s unknown how many of those acres are in Colorado.
The declaration activates a state emergency plan and directs state agencies “to take responsibility for all response, recovery, and mitigation efforts on the Sharpe Fire,” a news release from Polis’ office stated.
A roughly 70-mile stretch of U.S. 287 was closed for hours on Sunday between Lamar and the Oklahoma-Colorado border for the fire, according to the . The highway had fully reopened by Monday morning.
Heavy smoke from the fire dropped visibility and created unsafe conditions on the highway, prompting the closure, state transportation officials said.
“Oklahomans in the Panhandle are facing active wildfires, and our state is mobilizing resources to respond,” said in a statement on social media. That includes sending air support to fight the Sharpe fire, he said.
Southern Colorado was under red flag warnings for critical fire danger on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. The warnings included parts of Baca, Crowley, Fremont, Huerfano, Kiowa and Otero counties . Another round of red flag warnings was forecast for the southern state on Monday .
“Elevated fire danger is expected,” the warnings stated. “Fires will catch and spread rapidly and erratically.”
of the fire showed walls of smoke stretching up into the sky from a dirt road as trucks from the volunteer-based responded.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
