Editor's Note: This post collects all of our updates on the four major fires burning in Colorado for Aug. 24, 2020. You can find the latest udpates here. Our original post continues below.
As of Sunday, there are 93 large fires that have torched more than 1.6 million acres across 13 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The 2002 Hayman fire remains the state's largest at 137,760 acres. This year's Pine Gulch fire, burning north of Grand Junction, continues to inch toward that record in acreage.
Here are the current statuses of Colorado’s four major wildfires (click on the fire name to jump to the updates):
- Grizzly Creek Fire: 30,719 acres, 33 percent containment (Aug 24, 4:46 p.m.)
- Pine Gulch Fire: 134,108 acres, 47 percent containment (Aug 24, 6:50 p.m.)
- Cameron Peak Fire: 20,118 acres, no containment (Aug 24, 5:40 p.m.)
- Williams Fork Fire: 11,048 acres, 5 percent containment (Aug 24, 5:30 p.m.)
- Other fires
Grizzly Creek
Interstate 70 has finally reopened, though in a limited capacity, and evacuations for No Name were lifted by the Garfield County Sheriff's Office on Sunday afternoon. Smoke from the fire is still visible and the Colorado Department of Transportation will continue to monitor the fire and keep travelers on I-70 apprised of any change in the status of the road.
Pine Gulch
The fire is now 44 percent contained and no movement has been seen on the eastern edge — according to an update from the Incident Management Team, "the eastern perimeter and the part of the north is now considered contained." Fire officials expect moderate fire behavior on Monday should the weather continue to cooperate, but add that the chances of lightning and wind are concerning.
Cameron Peak
No structures or facilities have been damaged yet, though the fire was active on Sunday in the hot, dry and windy conditions. The fire moved on two fronts: moving south of Peterson Lake and north of the West Fork Tunnel area, according to officials.
Jake Livingston with the fire's management team says it's been hard to fight the fire right where it's growing.
"It's because the terrain is pretty extreme in a lot of areas in there. The vegetation and fuel loading, it's really thick and labor-intensive," Livingston said. "Especially with the beetle kill, in order to make a fire line you have to remove it. So it takes a lot of work to go a short distance."
Williams Fork
Crews are approaching the fire with a contain and confine strategy. In their morning update, officials said that progress was made Sunday on additional fire lines to the west and southwest of the burn that will provide future containment.
The control lines are half of the strategy. If favorable conditions exist, then firefighters will try to deny any fuels to the fire by burning vegetation between the control lines and the perimeter.
Other Fires
Thorpe
This fire is located in Park County, just two miles southwest of the unincorporated town of Tarryall.
Lewstone
The Lewstone fire started Aug. 22 about 15 miles northwest of Fort Collins.
