HERMOSA – A 1-acre brush fire broke out Sunday afternoon on private property in the 4000 block of County Road 203, coming dangerously close to a house and other structures.
Property owner Caesar Sanchez said he and his wife were cleaning around the property, but he is unsure of how the fire began.
“That’s the only thing that I can think of,” Sanchez said. “We were piling some stuff up out there. I happened to come out and see all the smoke.”
He said he began throwing dirt on the flames but to no avail.
Sanchez’s home and garage sits within heavy growth and tall trees, one growing just above the house.
“I didn’t want that tree to start burning,” Sanchez said, in fear of it falling onto the house itself. “But everything is so dry.”
Sanchez, who resides at the house with his wife, son and mother-in-law, said he called Durango Fire Protection District about 1 p.m.
“At the beginning, it was about half the size of a football field,” he said.
DFPD Chief Tony Harwig said 14 crew members from three stations responded.
The brush fire was dense and thick with billowing smoke, he said, making it difficult to grasp its actual size.
He said the flames came within 20 feet of Sanchez’s house, and another house is just to its north.
“It’s so dense and full of undergrowth that the crews are kind of just disappearing into the trees,” he said. “It’s hard to get a good estimate.”
A federal fire-fighting engine also responded, Harwig said, with air support on standby. But he said he didn’t believe either would be needed.
“I’ve got an investigator coming,” he said from his incident command position, just out of the haze and smoke carried by the wind.
Crews had contained the flames by 2:15 p.m. but were still working four hours later.
In addition, about 6 p.m., crews responded to a brush fire reported near County Road 237 in Horse Gulch. An assessment was conducted to warrant air support. Crews had doused the fire by 7:20 p.m.
At 6:46 p.m., DFPD verified a remote brush fire half an acre in size on a ridge line near Missionary Ridge with high potential of spreading because of abundant growth. DFPD requested air support because of limited access and peculiar location.
