Firefighters working around the clock were able to gain ground on two of the five large wildfires burning in Colorado on Thursday, according to fire officials
Meanwhile, no containment had been reached on the three other fires as crews work in unusually dry conditions.
The Sowbelly fire, burning 2,274 acres in the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area west of Delta, was 16% contained as of Thursday.
While progress has been made in stopping the fire’s advance, afternoon storms that bring gusty winds are still fueling the fire, the BLM said in an update Thursday. Scattered lightning, which could spark new fires, is also posing a risk for firefighters.
Crews are working Thursday to mop up the fire, or dampen hot spots by using hand tools and water, to gain more containment.
The Deer Creek fire, burning in Utah and Colorado, is also 7% contained, fire officials said Thursday.
The other fires — Turner Gulch, Wright Draw, South Rim — are burning about 20,000 acres across Mesa, Delta and Montrose counties, which are all facing extreme drought conditions. Earlier this week, the Colorado governor made a disaster declaration for the three counties.
The fires are fueled by extremely dry grass, brush and trees that received below-average precipitation through the winter, Glen Lewis, a fire behavior analyst said Wednesday night during a community meeting for the Turner Gulch and Wright Draw fires burning near Gateway. Some rain in June brought relief, but it also produced more fuels that soon dried out.
Under these conditions, fire is very volatile and can spread rapidly, Lewis said. The Turner Gulch and Wright Draw fires are also burning in remote and steep terrain that is very difficult for crews to reach.
No significant rain is expected in the next two weeks.
“As hot and dry as it is, any little bit of moisture in the upper atmosphere produces thunderstorms. And most of these thunderstorms right now, there’s enough to build up and produce lightning strikes, but not really enough to produce much precipitation,” Lewis said.
The monsoonal moisture that the Western Slope normally sees this time of the year is “nonexistent,” Lewis said.
Moderate to heavy wildfire smoke is causing poor air quality across the region. Thunderstorms on Thursday could produce gusty, erratic winds that can send smoke in any direction, the Colorado Department of Health and Environment warned in its air quality advisory.
The air quality advisory includes Mesa, Delta and Montrose counties.
A skycrane drops water on the Sowbelly fire burning in the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area. Crews Thursday will continue to mop up the fire with the goal of reaching more containment. (Photo provided by the Bureau of Land Managment)Turner Gulch and Wright Draw fires
Firefighters hadn’t reached any containment on the Turner Gulch fire in Mesa County as of Thursday. The fire, which exploded in size late Monday, was estimated at 15,071 acres.
Fire managers are prioritizing firefighter safety and are on high alert as thunderstorms as far as 20 miles away can bring in outflow winds that can rapidly change the fire’s direction and cause runs across very steep terrain, Lewis said.
“A very slight change in wind can allow them to be flanked and put them in a really dangerous situation,” he said.
The fire conditions are similar to those during the deadly 1994 South Canyon fire in Glenwood Springs, when 14 firefighters were killed, Lewis said.
The Wright Draw fire, burning on the other side of the Unaweep Canyon southwest of Grand Junction, is estimated at 448 acres.
More than 475 firefighters are fighting those fires, but they are relying on planes and helicopters due to the challenging terrain the fire is burning in, including rocky scree, operations section chief Travis Lipp said.
Crews likely won’t fully contain the Turner Gulch fire before the end of next week, an operations chief with the Rocky Mountain Area Incident Team said earlier this week.
“We’re trying to keep ahead of it but there’s going to be smoke in the area for quite some time,” Operations Section Chief Rob Powell said.
South Rim fire
The South Rim fire burning in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is estimated at 4,160 acres, fire officials said Thursday.
The fire consumed about 85% of the canyon’s south rim, park Superintendent Stuart West said Tuesday night during a community meeting for the fire.
All camping reservations are canceled through the year and the park won’t accept new reservations for the rest of the year, he added.
“Even after the fire is controlled, access to the inner canyon will be closed due to unstable rock,” he said. “When the vegetation burns and the rock gets hot, it gets unstable and it gets unpredictable.”
While the visitor center is intact and nearby Curecanti National Recreation Area was unscathed, the fire demolished a maintenance building in Black Canyon and all of the park’s heavy equipment, West said.
“The Black Canyon is a valuable resource to this community and to this country and a return to normal is in everyone’s best interest, but it’s going to take quite some time,” he said.
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison brings in about $35 million in revenue for the city and county on Montrose, Scott Hawkins, emergency manager, said.
Between 400 to 500 acres of federal land is also still at risk, Bureau of Land Management field office manager Jon Kaminksy said. It includes recreational areas for hiking, hunting and fishing, as well as habitat for the threatened Gunnison sage-grouse and livestock.
Scott Stearns, a National Weather Service meteorologist assigned to the fire, said the fire sparked July 10 when at least seven lightning bolts struck in the park.
Incoming storms will bring cloud cover and lower temperatures through the weekend, he said, but the storms will also bring a higher potential of lightning strikes across the Western Slope, which could spark new fires, and little chance of rain to help suppress the fires.
As of Thursday, more than 450 people, 23 fire engines and five aircraft were working to control the fire.
There isn’t an imminent threat to U.S. 50, but it may still be at risk, officials said.
The Blue Mesa Reservoir remains closed west of the Middle Bridge for two scooper planes to slurp up water. The planes can siphon 1,412 gallons in 12 seconds and dump all of it while hovering 100 feet above the flames in three seconds, Bethany Urban, a spokesperson for the South Rim fire said.
Deer Creek fire
The Deer Creek fire, currently estimated at 15,655 acres, sparked in eastern Utah before it crept over the Colorado border Tuesday into Montrose County.
It’s not clear how many acres of Colorado the fire is burning on, but according to maps, the fire is burning north of Colorado 90, near Paradox.
Rugged terrain and lack of road access have made it difficult for crews to fight the fire from the ground, fire officials said.
The rainfall forecast for Thursday will not fully extinguish the heat on a fire of this size, but will help moderate fire behavior and give firefighters an upper hand on containment, officials said.
Authorities are still investigating what caused the fire, which was 7% contained as of Thursday.
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