Thousands of firefighters are making steady progress holding back four major wildfires burning across Colorado, but hot, dry and windy weather over the weekend could make conditions more difficult, fire officials said Saturday.
Fire crews increased containment on the state’s largest active wildfire, the Aspen Acres fire, to 34% as of Saturday, up from 28% on Friday. The wildfire grew by less than a square mile overnight and has consumed 97,505 acres, or 152 square miles, since it sparked in Pueblo County on June 29.
“This is a long duration event,” said in an update Saturday morning. “Itap not going to be out before we leave, and like many fires that occur on the Colorado Front Range, they can go well beyond today. And many times itap the snow that falls in the wintertime that puts them out.”
The Alaska Incident Management Team will hand over command of the fire to a different incident management team in the coming days, Washa said. Fire officials have said itap standard procedure to rotate teams after a certain amount of time.
All four of Colorado’s major wildfires – Aspen Acres, Ferris, Gold Mountain and Willow – have in effect, as well as with closure orders on public lands near the fires. They collectively have burned 200,976 acres, or 314 square miles.
Most of the Aspen Acres fire’s activity on Friday was along the southwestern edge near the YMCA-owned Camp Jackson, and crews are also working to prepare homes along the southern edge in case the fire makes a run toward Rye, Washa said. Fire officials are trying to get in contact with more than 100 homeowners to get permission to do mitigation work on their properties. Anyone who may be on the list should contact the Aspen Acres team at 2026.aspenacres@firenet.gov or 719-697-8353, Washa said.
The Ferris fire continues to actively burn in and around Dolores Canyon in southwestern Colorado, fire officials said Saturday, but saw minimal growth overnight. The fire has consumed 63,271 acres, or 99 square miles, since it began burning on June 27, and remains 19% contained.
officials ordered more public land closures south of the Dolores/San Miguel county line on Saturday because of fire danger, including east of Colorado 140 and north of Dolores County Road H.6.
Crews likely will face record-high temperatures between 90 and 100 degrees this weekend, along with single-digit humidity levels and wind gusts up to 40 mph.
“We are at critical levels across the landscape,” Operations Section Chief Joe Tieso said in an update Saturday morning. “The next couple of days are important to us.”
To the north near Ouray, containment on the Gold Mountain fire dropped by 1% after the wildfire started growing on the northeastern edge near Cimarron Ridge and Nate Creek, fire officials said.
The fire has charred 34,848 acres, or 54 square miles, since it started June 27. It was 6% contained Saturday after growing by about 3 square miles on Friday.
The wildfire sparked several spot fires and produced significant heat as it grew, and while smoke cover hampered some of the fire growth earlier in the day, it picked back up late Friday and established on the east side of the West Fork of Cimarron Creek.
On the Willow fire near Leadville, Lake County officials are looking at lifting some mandatory evacuations in the coming days, Sheriff Heath Speckman said Saturday. All recent evacuation orders and road closures are still in effect.
The Willow fire grew by a little more than a square mile overnight, in part because firefighters proactively burned parts of the forest to prevent the wildfire from spreading, Speckman said. Flames have burned across 5,352 acres, or a little more than 8 square miles, since the fire started near Turquoise Lake on June 29.
Hot, dry weather that can cause fire growth is also expected near the Willow fire this weekend, fire officials said Saturday.
“An uptick in fire behavior is expected as a combination of high winds, low humidity and dry fuels are setting the Leadville area up for another stretch of critical fire weather conditions forecast to last through the coming days,” officials said.
