A wildfire sparked 10 miles west of Loveland on Monday morning burned across 950 acres in a matter of hours, forcing evacuations for roughly 37 square miles of Larimer County and shutting down U.S. 34 to Estes Park.
There was no containment on the Alexander Mountain fire that was burning in the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests on Monday as dozens of fire crews and at least 11 aircraft responded to the rapidly spreading fire, according to the fire officials.
No structures were damaged and no injuries were reported on Monday, Larimer County Emergency Services Director Justin Whitesell said in a briefing Monday afternoon.
The fire was approximately 1 1/2 miles from the closest structure, Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch at 2939 N. County Road 31D, Whitesell said.
The first 911 call reporting smoke west of the ranch came in around 10:39 a.m. and Loveland fire crews arrived at the ranch 20 minutes later, said Larimer County Sheriff’s Office Executive Director David Moore.
County officials started issuing mandatory evacuation orders just before noon.
People living near Storm Mountain, Palisade Mountain, Drake, Dam Store, Waltonia Road, Sylvan Dale to Ellis Ranch, Eden Valley to Sunrise Ranch and County Road 18E from Pole Hill to Pinewood Reservoir were ordered to evacuate immediately.
Rough boundaries for the mandatory evacuation zone include Buckhorn Road to the east, Storm Mountain to the north, the town of Drake to the west and Pinewood Reservoir to the south.
Larimer County does not track the number of households signed up for emergency alerts but sent mandatory evacuation notices to 2,635 contacts, Moore said. Households can have multiple contacts. Voluntary evacuation notices were sent to 1,491 contacts.
Fire crews on the ground were focused on going door to door in the mandatory evacuation zone Monday, Whitesell said.
“Our focus is on getting people out of the way of the fire and making sure they’re safe,” he said.
Fire officials are doing “the best we can with the resources we have,” Whitesell said, adding that national fire resources are limited because of other wildfires burning in California, Oregon, Canada and elsewhere.
Helicopters, air tankers and other aircraft are pulling water from nearby reservoirs and Horsetooth Reservoir was closed for firefighting operations Monday afternoon.
Aircraft fighting the fire includes the state’s new firefighting helicopter, the Firehawk, a Black Hawk helicopter that’s been retrofitted with custom technology and is capable of carrying 1,000 gallons of water to hot spots.
This is the second wildfire the Firehawk’s responded to, state fire officials said Monday.
Approximate location of fire
Fire officials have not determined what caused the fire, but weeks of hot, dry weather have dried out fuels and made them ready to burn, said National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Schlatter.
While summer monsoon rains typically begin to fall this time of the summer, they have not yet appeared.
“The fuels are dry and it’s really hot and dry out,” Schlatter said. “Even without a ton of wind that’s more than enough for a fire to spread quickly.”
Winds are expected to remain relatively calm into Tuesday, but high temperatures and humidity as low as 10% could create challenging conditions for firefighters, Schlatter said. Temperatures are forecast to reach 100 degrees in Loveland on Tuesday.
The Alexander Mountain fire is burning a few miles south of the Cameron Peak burn scar, said Larimer County Sheriff John Feyen.
It wouldn’t necessarily be bad for the fire to run into the burn scar because there’s less fuel there to burn, Feyen said.
