Three wildfires sparked Saturday in a southwestern Colorado forest, with two of the blazes combining to consume thousands of acres and force evacuations, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The Ferris, Far Draw and Doe Canyon fires were first reported Saturday afternoon in the , according to the U.S. Forest Service. As of Saturday night, the 4,777-acre had merged with the 649-acre Far Draw fire, together burning nearly 5,500 acres, . The Doe Canyon fire had consumed roughly 387 acres at that time.
The wildfires were “very active” overnight, officials said, but updated acreages were not yet available at 1:15 p.m. Sunday.
At that time, mandatory evacuations had been issued for residents north and east of the still-growing wildfires, according to the . The evacuation area was bordered to the north by Disappointment Road, to the south by the Glade Ranch community, to the west by the fire and to the east by Road 30, according to the office.
“Moving forward into today, the weather forecast is largely the same as it was yesterday,” San Juan Team Eight Incident Commander Brad Pietruszka said in an . “Those strong southwest winds are going to continue; you’re still going to see smoke columns and activity up on the hill.”
Dry, hot and windy conditions exacerbated the fires’ growth and are expected to continue through the next several days, Pietruszka said.
“The Ferris fire growing about 5,000 acres in five hours (on Saturday) is pretty unprecedented around here,” he said. “Extremely dry conditions, extremely high wind speeds and extreme fire behavior are definitely limiting our ability to simply get on the edge of this thing.”
Lighting is believed to have started all three fires in the forest’s near Narraguinnep Canyon, north of Dolores, according to fire officials.
“Extreme fire behavior” prevented firefighters from engaging the fire directly on Saturday, but airtankers dropped roughly a dozen loads of retardant on the fire’s southeast flank, fire officials stated in a Sunday update.
Red flag conditions, including the strong winds and dry fuels that drove the fires northeast on Saturday, could reduce the effectiveness of aircraft and potentially ground them, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The area will be under a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning until 10 p.m. Sunday, .
Homes near the head of the fire and structures within the natural forest are threatened by the spreading flames, fire officials said. It’s unknown how many buildings are threatened, but no structures had been lost as of Sunday.
The U.S. Forest Service closed the Bradfield Bridge Campground, Forest Service Road 504 to the base of McPhee Dam, Forest Service Road 521 and Forest Service Road 504 “out of an abundance of caution,” .
This is a developing story and may be updated.
