GRAND JUNCTION — Good news arrived to the Western Slope. While the Lee Fire continues to grow in acreage, containment has gone up and the fire lines have held.
A new executive order issued Thursday by Gov. Jared Polis also expanded current disaster declarations to the entire state, which has lost 185,000 acres to wildfire so far this year, much of it in western Colorado.
The Lee fire, burning in Rio Blanco County, reached 133,841 acres Friday morning while containment increased to 12%, up 9 percentage points from Thursday. Importantly, the acreage growth remained inside existing borders. So far, the Lee fire and Elk fire, which is burning east of Meeker, have destroyed five houses and 14 other structures, with the Rio Blanco Sheriff’s Office beginning an expanded damage assessment Friday.
After a week that saw weather conditions impede firefighting efforts, fire danger on Friday dropped from critical to high, with a 60% chance of precipitation. The weekend is expected to bring more relief, with moderate conditions expected through Monday.
At a community meeting Thursday night in Rifle, officials said that despite fire activity on the fire’s south side, the perimeter is holding.
“Two nights ago. I believe when we were having this meeting in here, there was quite a bit of uncertainty with us. … Right now, we feel really good,” Rocky Mountain Incident Command Team Incident Commander Casey Cheesbrough said.
Lisa Dawson, a Bureau of Land Management field manager, noted that the size of the crowd at the briefing had also decreased, calling it another good sign.
The Lee fire ranks as the fifth-largest wildfire in state history behind the Cameron Peak (208,913 acres), East Troublesome (193,812) and Pine Gulch (139,007) fires all in 2020 and the Hayman fire (137,760) in 2002.
The Elk Fire, also in Rio Blanco County near Meeker, sits at 14,518 acres and firefighters have reached 93% containment.
Resources increased for all fires
Polis’ executive order comes as 11 significant wildfires are burning across the state, with 2,395 personnel from across the country and 41 aircraft deployed. A significant amount of those resources are on the Lee and Elk fires, along with Turner Creek fire in Mesa County, Crosho fire in Routt and Rio Blanco counties, and Oak fire in Archuleta County, due to disaster declarations from the governor authorizing the use of state resources.
During a visit to the Turner Gulch fire command center Thursday in Grand Junction, Polis spoke about the executive order that will provide state aircraft, personnel and expertise to any wildland fire in the state.
The order will also allocate $2.5 million in emergency funding to the Wildfire Emergency Response Fund, which has already spent $1.5 million of the $1.7 million it was allocated for the fiscal year that started July 1. The governor said the money will hopefully allow increased flexibility to prevent small fires from growing into large ones.
“We’re going to hit them early,” Polis said. “We’re going to hit them heavy.”
The order authorized — but did not deploy — the Colorado National Guard for fire response in case additional help is needed. Currently, two Chinook helicopters and 24 guard members have been deployed to the fires after previous declarations.
Polis also reflected on his most challenging year of fire response in office, 2020, which saw 774,000 acres burned, and the three largest fires in state history. He said that in the years since, agency collaboration has increased, and the state has invested in its own aircraft. The 2020 fire response struggled to secure aircraft, because of fires burning in New Mexico and California. The state’s second Fire hawk helicopter will go into service in the coming days.
“We’re in a better situation than we were five years ago, but, you know, still beholden to hot, dry weather and the risk that that entails,” Polis said.
Another Community meeting for the Lee Fire will be held in Meeker on Saturday at 7 p.m.