Crews fighting the Ferris Fire made progress protecting structures and private property on Wednesday as they prepared for steadily improving weather conditions. As of Wednesday night, the fire had burned 25,814 acres.
Abraham Proffitt, spokesman for the San Juan National Forest, said crews built a dozer line around private property in the southeast corner of Division Z before doing similar work in Division K on the eastern side.
In the northern Division F, crews were able to successfully establish structural protections around Benchmark Lookout and other private properties. They planned burnout operations Wednesday night.
Looking ahead to Thursday, the plan involved moving additional resources to Divisions C and J on the western side of the fire.
Due to the topography and safety concerns in the Dolores River Canyon, Proffitt said firefighters have not been placed in the canyon.
“We’re not putting firefighters directly into those canyons, but we’re lining them out on the canyon to provide structural protection and to create dozer line for tomorrow (Thursday),” Proffitt said.
Crews were working to keep fire out of the Dolores River Canyon, but those efforts may prove futile; a clearer picture was expected by Thursday morning.
In various fire locations, officials and fire crews are performing round-the-clock suppression work, full nights and days, with strategic and tactical plans shifting daily.
More than 280 people are assigned to the fire, up from 251 on Tuesday.
Officials said they are seeing progress in some areas as firefighters build containment lines while closely watching other areas – especially where steep terrain limits suppression capability and poses safety concerns for firefighters.
The biggest shift, as of Wednesday morning, was on the fire’s northwest side. The fire had established in Doe Canyon and moved toward Dolores River Canyon, a remote river canyon managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The area is the farthest from Dolores township but is showing to be a complex hurdle.
San Juan National Forest spokesperson Lorena Williams said the area has been named Division C and fire managers were developing a strategy to build indirect containment Wednesday. Alongside agencies like the sheriff's departments, emergency managers, and BLM, San Juan Team 8 officials are developing contingency plans in case the fire moves to Dolores River Canyon.
“It's too dangerous to put firefighters down in a canyon,” Williams said. “Fires are known (to) blow up and out of canyons and we are not willing to risk firefighters’ lives.”
While the fire’s northwest side proves challenging, the top priority of the Dolores Ranger District remains the same since the wildfires ignited, which is protecting and mitigating the northeast and eastern sides near private lands in the Glade Ranch subdivision, or Division K.
Other at-risk priorities include the Benchmark Lookout Tower on the north end.
The Arroyo Grande Hotshots played a crucial part in helping suppression Tuesday, digging hand lines in oak brush on the northeastern Divisions K and Z while three heavy helicopters flew for seven to eight hours and dropped a total of 50,000 gallons of water.
There were also 20 large air tanker drops of retardant and single-engine air tankers delivering six loads of retardant.
Tuesday night’s crew completed burnout operations on multiple divisions of the fire, aiming to bridge a gap between roads and the fire’s main body to use the infrastructure as a fire line.
“The Arroyo Grande Hotshots are there again today continuing their fire line, and it’s looking really good. They’re making great progress,” Williams said.
The bulk of the work involves building a hose lay to supply water to bolster containment.
Wednesday morning’s briefing took place at the new Salter Y Spike Camp, the fire’s logistical campgrounds, which is fully running and reduces drive time.
Overall, Williams said since the three wildfires started Saturday and merged over the weekend, containment has been challenging.
“We’re making really good progress in Division Kilo (K) and Division Zulu (Z) and we're really confident, barring a weather event, that we can continue capitalizing on the progress we've made in prior days,” she said.
The fire remained zero percent contained.
Less wind is forecast in coming days, but higher temperatures could lead to what fire officials call “plume-dominated behavior,” in which strong convection creates its own weather.
“The other fires in the general Four Corners region are blowing up, and the reason ours is not blowing up is that we have not had alignment with wind and terrain,” Williams said.
Terrain and location are helping limit spread, she said. However, higher temperatures still create elevated risk. Fire activity has remained active during the night amid low humidity.
Multiple homes and private lands in Dolores and Montezuma counties remain under evacuation orders. Information on evacuations can be found on the Dolores County Office of Emergency Management’s Facebook page.
The San Juan National Forest has implemented a Fire Area Closure.
Other regional fires include the Gold Mountain Fire in Ouray County and the Aspen Acres Fire in Pueblo and Custer counties. Both are zero percent contained.
The Aspen Acres Fire was last reported at 47,953 acres, with multiple towns like Beulah, Rye, San Isabel, Wetmore and Colorado City being evacuated.
While the Gold Mountain Fire was not as large in acreage as Aspen Acres and Gold Mountain, it was growing steadily at nearly 15,000 acres.
awatson@the-journal.com
