DENVER – More evacuations were ordered for homes and business in northern Colorado on Monday from a huge, wind-driven wildfire that blanketed large portions of the Front Range area with smoke – even as a gathering snowstorm promised potential relief.
The fire near Red Feather Lakes more than tripled in size over the Labor Day weekend and had consumed almost 140 square miles by Monday afternoon as it moved through rugged terrain with lots of dead trees that had been killed by beetles, fire spokesperson Ronda Scholting said. The fire was only 4% contained.
“You can’t stop it in that steep country,” she said.
The blaze was threatening homes and businesses along Highway 14. Farther east it encroached on the Glacier View subdivision, which was ordered evacuated Monday morning because of “immediate and imminent danger,” the Larimer Couny Sheriff’s Office said.
More evacuation notices went out as the day progressed, and at least 2,000 people were under mandatory or voluntary evacuation order by late afternoon, Sheriff’s Office spokesman David Moore said.
Officials requested 50 engines from fire departments across Colorado to help protect houses. Those began arriving Monday, Scholting said. She did not know of any structures that burned over the weekend.
Thousands of houses, commercial building and other structures are in the general vicinity of the blaze, which has emerged as one of the largest recorded fires in Colorado’s history.
Winds of up to 40 mph and dry weather were in the short-term forecast, creating potentially dangerous conditions.
A cold front arriving overnight Monday was forecast to drop 6 to 12 inches of snow across the burn area, with temperatures dropping to around 20 degrees by Tuesday morning.
That could help crews contain the uncontrolled blaze, although the snow was not expected to extinguish it altogether.
The state health department issued an air quality alert for much of the Front Range, including Denver, Boulder, Longmont, Fort Collins and Greeley. Officials said the dense smoke from the fires could be unhealthy for older adults, children and people with lung disease or respiratory illnesses.
Those populations were advised to stay indoors if smoke becomes thick in their neighborhoods.
Closures of U.S. Forest Service land were extended to include areas east of the fire nearly to Fort Collins.
Health officials issued a separate smoke advisory for areas of northwestern Colorado because of fires burning in neighboring Utah.
