Fire west of Fort Collins causing evacuations

(On June 11 we posted an update on the High Park fire which you can see HERE.)

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UPDATE at 7:39 a.m. MT, June 10, 2012:

We have an updated map of the High Park Fire HERE.

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UPDATE  at 8:32 p.m. MT, June 9, 2012:

The High Park fire west of Fort Collins Colorado has burned or damaged at least 10 structures and approximately 5,000 acres. Many residents have been evacuated and 800 pre-evacuation notifications were sent out within the last few hours when the fire, burning from west to east, crossed County Road 27 south of the Stove Prairie School.

A Type 2 Incident Management team is responding and a Type 1 IMTeam was ordered late this afternoon.

Firefighters are worried about communication equipment and radio repeaters out ahead of the fire on Buckhorn Mountain. If the equipment there burns, it could have a negative effect on the radio communications on the fire. They were hoping to get some air tankers to drop some long term retardant around the site before dark, but it is unknown if they were able to get that done. There are three heavy air tankers working the fire, two CV 580s and one P2V.

A cold front is going to pass through the fire area after midnight bringing even stronger winds which will challenge firefighters. The winds will shift from west-southwest to west-northwest and blow with intensity after midnight and on Sunday. But the temperatures will be 15 to 20 degrees cooler on Sunday.

The local fire and law enforcement personnel are doing a great job of providing information to the public about the fire and evacuations:

Since these agencies have stepped up to the plate in such an outstanding manner, we will cut back on our coverage, and only post information that we don’t see covered elsewhere.

Scroll down to see maps of the High Park fire.

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UPDATE at 5:09 p.m. MT, June 9, 2012: Satellite view of the High Point fire.

Satellite map of High Park fire, 4:31 p.m., June 9, 2012
Satellite map of High Park fire, 4:31 p.m., June 9, 2012

We posted some photos of the air tankers that are at the Rocky Mountain Metro Airport, which is the retardant reload base for the fire, 48 miles away.
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