Editor's Note: Due to reduced fire activity and relatively high containment, CPR News will be moving away from daily live blog coverage of Colorado's fires. We will still monitor conditions and report on developments as they arise. This post will be our final live blog update on the four major wildfires in the state unless conditions change.
Here are the current statuses of Colorado’s four major wildfires (click on the fire name to jump to the updates):
- Grizzly Creek Fire: 32,408 acres, 68 percent containment (Aug 28, 9:30 a.m.)
- Pine Gulch Fire: 139,006 acres, 77 percent containment (Aug 28, 9:40 a.m.)
- Cameron Peak Fire: 22,9715 acres, no containment (Aug 28, 11:24 a.m.)
- Williams Fork Fire: 12,048 acres, 5 percent containment (Aug 28, 7:17 a.m.)
- Other fires
Grizzly Creek
The fire's two biggest challenges are the No Name and Grizzly Creek drainages and the southern perimeter near Green Lake. Firefighters are focusing their efforts in these areas. Meanwhile, helicopters are still dropping water on the uncontained sections of the fire's boundary.
Officials are hopeful that easing weather conditions will continue to moderate fire behavior and aid in suppression. As containment increases, efforts will turn toward repair the impacts on the landscape and communities done by the fire.
“We’re focusing on the economic and social impacts the fire has had and trying to help this community get back to normal life,” said incident commander Norm McDonald in a statement.
Pine Gulch
The Pine Gulch fire is now the biggest wildfire ever in Colorado. It's burned more than 139,000 acres north of Grand Junction.
"The increase in acreage is not due to the fire moving," said Jacob Welsh, spokesman for the fire management team. "It's due to more accurate mapping."
The record for the largest fire had been held by the Hayman Fire, which burned between Denver and Colorado Springs in 2002. It was also a much more destructive fire that killed six and destroyed 133 homes. By contrast, no homes have burned down in the Pine Gulch Fire, but it has burned an unknown amount of grazing land.
Management of the fire will transition to a new team on Sunday, Aug. 30.
Cameron Peak
Officials expect the fire to spread toward Rocky Mountain National Park along Long Draw Road around Peterson Lake, as well as movement to the east toward Comanche Peak.
Williams Fork
Fire officials say they met with members and staff of Colorado's congressional delegation and briefed them on the Williams Fork Fire.
Both fire behavior and growth remain moderate as firefighters work on mop up to the southwest of the fire. Friday's forecast calls for a chance of wetting rain over the area.
Other Fires
East Fork
The East Fork fire was caused by lighting on Aug 22. The fire is burning 11 miles southeast of Trinidad. Currently, the burn covers 450 acres and is 10 percent contained.
Crews worked to build indirect control lines on the west, north and east sides of the fire. Once lines were in place, burnout operations were conducted to deny fuels to the fire. So far, 25 firefighters are working the blaze with support from a large air tanker.
Willis Creek
This fire is in Pueblo County, about 1.5 miles to the northeast of Lake Isabel.
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.
