Map of Hewlett fire, 2:19 a.m., May 18, 2012

UPDATE at 8 p.m. May 18, 2012

The US Forest Service announced that all evacuations and Highway 14 reopened at 7 p.m.. There was no fire spread on Friday and it is 45% contained.

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The Hewlett fire, 10 miles northwest of Fort Collins, Colorado added a couple of thousand acres on Thursday, and at 2 a.m. Friday morning was mapped by US Forest Service infrared aircraft N144Z at 7,673 acres. The map of the fire above shows that the perimeter moved south down to Highway 14 and appears to be holding there, at least for now. If you need a higher resolution version of the map you can view it here; it’s 1.5 MB.

Thursday firefighters conducted some burnouts on the east side that strengthened that flank of the fire along the North Fork of the Poudre from Seaman Reservoir to Long Draw. Portions of Highway 14 remain closed.

Here is some information from InciWeb about evacuations:

The mandatory evacuation for the 15 homes along Highway 14 from the Greyrock Trailhead to the North Poudre diversion dam (approximately mile markers 113 to 115) is still in effect. Highway 14 remain closed from Ted’s Place to Stove Praire. Evacuation Center is established at Cache La Poudre Middle School, 3515 West County Road 54G in La Porte, Colo. If you have large animals, you may take them to The Ranch off of I-25.

Map of the Hewlett fire May 16, 2012. (The time stamp on the fire perimeter shown above is incorrect. The perimeter was mapped by an infrared flight at 10 p.m. May 16.)

UPDATE at 12:54 p.m. MDT, May 17, 2012

The Larimer County Sheriff’s office reported at 12:50 p.m. that Highway 14 has been closed from Ted’s PLace to Stove Prairie Road. Residents may use the road to leave.

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At approximately 11 a.m. today the Larimer County Sheriff ordered evacuations in front of the Hewlett fire which has grown substantially over the last 24 hours (see map of the Hewlett fire above). The fire is burning 10 miles northwest of Fort Collins on the north side of Highway 14. On Wednesday the size was reported to be 982 acres, but an infrared imagery flight by US Forest Service aircraft N144Z at 10 p.m. Wednesday night mapped it at  5,090 acres.

Here is the information about the evacuation provided Thursday morning by the Incident Management Team:

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office has issued a mandatory evacuation order in the area of Bonner Springs Ranch Road, Deer Valley Road, Obenchain Road and Ingleside Road. All residents are asked to evacuate immediately. Evacuation Center is being established at Cache La Poudre Middle School, 3515 West County Road 54G in La Porte, Colo. If you have large animals, you may take them to The Ranch off of I-25.

Hewlett fire May 16, 2012. Photo by Amy Cosper

The reload base for the air tanker(s) working the fire is Jeffco (Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport) 55 miles south of the fire. On Wednesday there was one air tanker working on the fire, and there is an unconfirmed report that only one is working the fire again today.

The weather forecast for the fire area Thursday afternoon is for northwest winds shifting to southwest at 10 mph, temperature of 83, and relative humidity in the high teens. On Friday the winds will increase substantially at 15 mph hour gusting to 24 out of the south, then southwest.

Brush fire near the US/Mexico border; imagery at 2:14 p.m. PDT May 17, 2012. The red areas were the most recently detected by the satellite.

UPDATE at 9:59 p.m. PDT, May 17, 2012

After CAL FIRE said the spread had been stopped in the afternoon, strong winds caused the fire to escape containment and at about 7 p.m. PDT the US Forest Service sent seven engines, a water tender, and misc. staff to the fire. At 8 p.m. CAL FIRE said the fire on the U.S. side of the border had grown to 100 acres and was10% contained.

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UPDATE at 4:11 p.m. MDT, May 17, 2012

CAL FIRE is reporting the spread of the fire on the U.S. side of the border has been stopped. The fire has burned 15 acres on the U.S. side and 600 acres on the Mexico side. The two air tankers have been released but the engines and water tenders will be on scene for several hours mopping up.

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A wildfire in Mexico east of San Diego may cross into California. At the time of the imagery above, 10:57 p.m. PDT May 16, the fire was less than a mile south of the border. CAL FIRE reported at 9:07 a.m. today that crews were responding to the area because the fire may threaten the United States.

The weather at the Boulevard weather station four miles north of the fire at 8:50 a.m. PDT today was 80 degrees, relative humidity of 24%, and winds out of the WSW at 8 mph, gusting to 12 mph. The forecast for later today is for the wind to come out of the west at 10 to 15 mph gusting to 24, and for the relative humidity to remain in the low 20s with a high temperature of 84 degrees. It sounds like firefighters may have their hands full this afternoon. I doubt if any of the 10 federal air tankers are available, but CAL FIRE has a bunch of S-2s at their disposal.

Azcentral.com has an interesting video report on what it’s like to work on a Hotshot crew.

Thanks go out to Devin

Red Flag Warnings May 17, 2012

Large areas in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado are under a Red Flag Warning or Fire Weather Watch today. This will not help the fire suppression efforts currently underway.

The weather forecast for Prescott, Arizona is for the Red Flag Warning to begin at 11 a.m. on Thursday and continue through 8 p.m. Friday. For Thursday the National Weather Service predicts southwest winds at 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 45 mph and a minimum relative humidity of 8 percent.

The state of Utah must be doing something right, because the warning area stopped at the imaginary line.