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Two small fires burning on Missionary Ridge

Forest Service expects fire to be contained Saturday evening

Fire crews from the San Juan National Forest are battling two small fires on Missionary Ridge.

The fires are a couple hundred yards apart, and combined are less than half an acre. There are no threats to structures, said Chris Tipton, fire management officer for SJNF.

The fires, burning 8 miles up Missionary Ridge Road in the Coon Creek area, are expected to be fully contained Saturday afternoon and fully controlled either Saturday evening or Sunday morning, Tipton said.

“It’s burning in the old burn scar,” Tipton said. “The fires aren’t growing. They’re very low fire intensity. It’s a lot of the old dead fuel left over from the burn in 2002 that’s just kind of sitting there smoldering and burning.”

The fires were reported by the pilot of the helicopter leased by the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad around 9 a.m., Tipton said.

The fires are “lightning hold-over fires,” meaning they were started by lightning strikes a couple days ago.

Four firefighters from SJNF are responding to the incident.

“They have no issues as far as containing and controlling the fire,” Tipton said. “This is one of the many, many small lightning fires that we typically see this time of year. It’s very normal.”

asemadeni@durangoherald.com



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