A fire sparked by lightning near Beulah in southwestern Pueblo County has nearly tripled in size since Monday evening to 787 acres.
Video collected by the state Multi-Mission Aircraft flight over the Oak Ridge fire showed the fire burning with greatest intensity along the western edge of the fire, which was 0% contained as of 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Fire crews will remain on scene this evening and will continue to monitor the fire overnight.
Tuesday afternoon, the fire was at about 495 acres as local authorities ordered nearby residents to evacuate.
The fire, spotted Saturday morning as a single tree burning near Beulah Highlands, expanded in the first three days to 275 acres by Monday evening and is fueled by strong winds.
The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office ordered a mandatory evacuation Monday for Middle Creek Canyon and has ordered pre-evacuation notices for residents of Cascade Avenue, Vine Mesa Avenue, Pine Avenue and Beulah Highlands. Displaced residents have been directed to shelter at Pueblo County Parks and Recreation in Pueblo.
A community team, meanwhile, has set up a shelter for livestock and offered to help people trailer horses and other large animals to 4 Bar S, a church along Colorado 78.
Various agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, were fighting the fire, about 3 miles northwest of Beulah, with five air tankers and helicopters. Additional air and ground resources were expected to arrive Tuesday.
The fire was first noticed around 9 a.m. Saturday, when the Beulah Fire Protection and Ambulance District reported that fire crews were headed to the national forest to investigate smoke that was spotted by Beulah Highlands residents.
“The fire is confirmed to be a single, downed tree burning,” the district reported at 9:40 a.m. “Air resources will be overhead throughout the day to extinguish. There are no concerns for the public at this time. The fire is about two ridges away from the Beulah Highlands.”
Aerial crews dropped buckets of water on the fire Saturday afternoon, but the blaze continued “creeping and smoldering in steep terrain.”
It is one of a handful of fires burning in Colorado.
The Interlaken fire burning southwest of Leadville near Twin Lakes was considered 100% contained Monday night, officials said. The size of the burn area was downsized over the weekend to 704 acres from, 745 acres after more precise mapping.