Two weeks after a lightning storm ignited multiple fires across the parched Western Slope, fire crews continue to make gains on the largest wildfires still burning and have started the repair work to reduce the footprint left by firefighting work.
Where the fire threat is lower, crews on the Turner Gulch and Wright Draw fires in Mesa County are trying to restore areas as close to pre-fire conditions as “reasonably possible,” the Rocky Mountain Area Incident Team said.
Crews will use woodchippers to chip tree limbs and other debris that accumulated during suppression work, fire officials said. They will also return hand and dozer lines to their natural grade, removing debris and constructing waterbars to facilitate healthy water run off and minimize soil erosion.
Suppression repair is a long-term project and will continue long after the initial fire response is complete. Crews will also plant seeds, repair roads and continue protecting waterways in the weeks to come.
Firefighters are monitoring the Wright Draw fire near Gateway, which is now 92% contained, with aerial reconnaissance from helicopters and drones equipped with infrared fire activity, though there is very little fire activity as of Friday, officials said.
Meanwhile, three Hotshot crews are directly attacking “fingers of fire” on the eastern side of the nearby Turner Gulch fire, Operations Section Chief Rob Powell said. As of Friday, the wildfire was 42% contained.
Firefighters are also monitoring small, isolated sources of heat in the steep and inaccessible areas of the fire along a ridgeline on the southwest side of the fire.
Conditions are ideal for crews to use drones and drip torches to burn areas to boost containment, Powell said.
“The next few days: warmer, drier, near critical conditions if not red flag this weekend, so this gives us a little time to secure that edge,” Powell said.
The South Rim fire is still actively burning inside the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
Crews have contained 32% of the 4,223-acre fire as of Friday, but still are working to strengthen fire lines and mop up parts of the fire by dousing any remaining flames or embers and removing material near firelines, Operations Section Chief Tyler Nathe said in a Friday morning video update. Crews stir and drown out any hot areas that are still smoking and use the back of their hands to feel the ashes to ensure all heat is gone.
“This job requires firefighters to venture 100-300 feet inside control lines to attack any remaining hot spots,” the Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team said.
Firefighters are monitoring the southern edge of the fire, where there was a slight increase in fire activity in previously unburned pockets of fuel, Nathe said.
Wildfires can impact drinking water as the change in soil properties and loss of vegetation can cause more water to flow over the surface during storms and bring more sediment, ash, pollutants and debris to surface water.
Drinking water supplies have not been directly impacted by the fire, the national park said. Soil scientists and hydrologists with the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior looked for sedimentation and debris flow that could impact water quality and did not find risks.
Once conditions allow, another team will evaluate post-fire threats, like flooding, debris flows, hazardous materials and hazardous trees, as well as impacts to cultural and historical sites, and will share their findings when they become available, the park said.
About 50 firefighters are still working the Sowbelly fire, now 90% contained in the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation area. Crews continue to put out hot spots that they identify using infrared flights to prevent future ignitions, fire officials said. The hot spots might be hard to see from the ground.
The Deer Creek fire, which started in Utah before crossing over the Colorado border, is now 77% contained. The fire is estimated at 17,724 acres, including 2,627 acres on Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service land in Colorado.
Drought expands in western Colorado
Nearly 43% of the state is experiencing drought conditions with almost all of western Colorado facing serious drought conditions, when fuels are dry enough for fires to easily ignite, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The dry spell in western Colorado has continued after a winter with lower-than-usual snowpack and surges of monsoonal moisture have mostly missed western Colorado to this point, Peter Goble, assistant state climatologist at Colorado State University’s Colorado Climate Center, told The Sun.
Large swaths of the Western Slope remain in extreme drought conditions, including all of Delta County and parts of Mesa, Garfield, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt, Eagle Pitkin, Gunnison and Montrose counties, the drought monitor shows.
Fire restrictions remain in effect in many parts of the state.
Even with high humidity levels and a mix of heavy and light rain in Rocky Mountain National Park, a lightning bolt Thursday sparked a small fire on the northern side of the park.
Staff hiked to a small plume of smoke in a steep remote area to find a “single smoldering tree,” park officials said. The fire was contained to 0.1 acres and no values are at risk.
Warm, dry air forecast along the Western Slope in the coming days has fire managers on alert.
“Fire managers are cognizant of the potential for near-critical fire weather over the weekend,” officials said in a Friday update for the Turner Gulch and Wright Draw fires. “Strategy and tactics have been matched to the opportunities presented by the fuel and weather as conditions have changed.”
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