Beaver Creek Fire Now 7 Percent Contained
Drier, warmer weather will likely result in a more active Beaver Creek Fire than what fire managers have seen over the past week.
"Over the previous week, we have been in sort of a monsoon pattern and the fire has been relatively calm," says Michael Davis, public information officer for the Beaver Creek Fire management team. "It hasn't grown in any substantial way."
The last significant growth was reported a week ago. Fire managers now estimate the fire at 25,491 acres in size, burning lands managed by state and federal agencies in both Colorado and Wyoming. The blaze is now 7 percent contained.
Davis says firefighters were able to walk a portion of the fire perimeter in order to verify the increased containment. A Monday morning news release from fire managers says new data gleaned from thermal imagery of areas where crews are unable to walk the fireline due to rugged terrain may show further increases in containment.
"We just haven't had the resources to walk around this almost forty-square-mile fire at this time," Davis says.
A total of 288 firefighters including five crews, 23 engines, two dozers and two helicopters are currently assigned to the fire located 24 miles north of Walden, Colo.
Crews continue to protect buildings, an effort which has been overwhelmingly successful with only two outbuildings lost since the fire was first reported in June.
"It's a pretty amazing success story," says Davis.
"We've got a road here called the six-hundred road that has somewhere between a dozen and twenty structures, and it is right in the heart of the fire," Davis says. "Crews went in there; they were able to wrap those structures, install sprinkler systems, cut down trees and build defensible space."
"Not a single habitable structure has been lost on this fire," Davis concludes. In addition, no injuries have been reported to date save for one firefighter who sustained a minor cut on his finger and returned to work that same day.
Monday's forecast calls for temperatures around 80 degrees with humidity in the teens. Afternoon thunderstorms are expected to bring gusty winds resulting in some interior heat, smoke and both single tree and group tree torching.
Fire Meteorologist Tim Mathewson told firefighters to prepare for wind shifts throughout the day.