Nearly 500 firefighters are working to control wildfires along the Western Slope where above-average temperatures and very dry fuels are causing extreme fire growth, including a fire in Mesa County that exploded to more than 8,000 acres Monday night.
The Turner Gulch wildfire, which was sparked by lightning July 10, stayed very active overnight and pushed eight miles east, according to the Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 1, which took over command Tuesday morning.
The wildfire is burning about eight miles northeast of Gateway and is mapped at 8,140 acres with 0% containment. Monday the fire was estimated at 1,470 acres.
In Colorado, the team of local, state and federal agencies are working on three large uncontained fires in the western part of the state, including Turner Gulch. The Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team is typically called to respond to large, complex fires and can expand its staff when needed to help get a fire under control.
“Your fuels are extremely dry, your pinyon juniper, your oak brush is cured down, there is a lot of cheatgrass in there, and you realize the steepness of this terrain — it’s just not a good place to fight fire,” Operations Section Chief Rob Powell said in video briefing Tuesday afternoon. “And the fire wants to go. We saw about a 7,000-acre run yesterday afternoon.”
Crews were working Tuesday to keep the fire from jumping Highway 141.
“Our science and technology is telling us that this fire really wants to spot across the highway. And we don’t want that,” Powell said. “We are concentrating most of our effort along this 141 corridor to protect the values at risk, the homeowners, the private property and the fiber optic and power lines that serve that community.”
Both the Turner Gulch fire and Wright Draw fire to the west were reported after extensive dry lightning and windy conditions, officials said. Both fires are burning along steep terrain on either side of Unaweep Canyon and are difficult to reach by ground for firefighters.
As of Tuesday, the Wright Draw fire was burning one mile west of Highway 141 and estimated at 249 acres, according to the management team. Mandatory evacuations were ordered along the highway as firefighters reported rapid fire growth.
The wildfires are burning in areas under extreme drought conditions. The burning index, a tool that rates fire danger, ranks the fire above 90, which means flames can reach 9 feet or more and the fire will be releasing heat at a high rate, making it difficult for firefighters to control.
With a fire burning at that level, the heat load on people within 30 feet of the flames is dangerous, according to the index.
Afternoon thunderstorms are expected to bring gusty winds that could fuel the flames Tuesday and Wednesday, fire managers said. Despite a slight uptick in relative humidity later in the week, firefighters will still have to battle warmer and drier air.
South Rim fire
Crews are working to protect critical water and power supplies at the south end of the South Rim fire by using drones to control the fire’s direction and growth across steep terrain.
At the southeastern edge of the fire inside the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, the Crystal Dam and another diversion dam, regulates the flow of the Gunnison River for water storage and hydroelectric power generation.
Monday night, firefighters intentionally burned an area along a rock ridge near the southern end of the fire to connect a firebreak to the rim before it drops into the canyon, Tyler Nathe, Operations Section Chief with Rocky Mountain Area Complex Incident Management Team 3 said in a Tuesday morning video briefing.
The intentional burning is a common tactic used by firefighters to contain and control large and complex fires.
“That allows us to utilize that as a good control feature for this south bookend and provide protection of those critical values without endangering any personnel and utilizing that aircraft system,” Nathe said.
The western side of the Blue Mesa Reservoir was closed Monday as aviation piloting two Super Scoopers slurped up water to dump across the northwestern side of the fire for five hours Monday.
“They’ve closed the surface of the water for recreation, so there’s no boats or anything allowed on that right now. People can still camp near there, they can still be on the shore, they can fish from the shore,” Bethany Urban, a spokesperson for the South Rim fire said Monday.
No homes in the Bostwick Park neighborhood have been impacted, Nathe said.
The fire, which was sparked by lightning July 10, was estimated at 3,998 acres Tuesday morning and 0% containment.
Sowbelly fire
The Sowbelly fire, estimated at 2,274 acres and 0% contained Tuesday morning, is also burning in hard-to-reach terrain within the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area, northwest of Delta.
Despite high temperatures and evening winds, the wildfire did not dramatically increase, fire officials with the Bureau of Land Management Southwest District Fire said in an update Tuesday on Inciweb, a federal wildfire database.
The fire is creeping and smoldering and crews will patrol via UTVs to find hot spots and work along the northern drainages where the fire is more active.