The Spring Creek Fire in Costilla County, Colorado. Photo courtesy Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Field Manager via San Luis Valley Twitter.
(UPDATED at 8:51 a.m. MDT June 29 2018 by Bill Gabbert)
Updated information provided by the Rocky Mountain Coordination Center reported that the Spring Creek Fire has burned 14,424 acres. However infrared data from a fixed wing aircraft that flew the fire at 9:35 p.m MDT on June 28 showed that the fire was significantly larger. The convection column of smoke made it difficult for the equipment to map accurately as it avoided plumes and bounced around. Other information collected by a satellite at 3:36 a.m. also showed that the fire was very active on the east and southeast sides and that it could be much larger as than the last official estimate by the RMCC.
CLICK HERE to see all of the articles on Wildfire Today about the Spring Creek Fire.
There are reports that the fire has crossed and required the closure of Highway 160, the main highway between Walsenburg and Alamosa.
The early information was that the name of the fire was “Spring”, but the official name is “Spring Creek”
Shane Greer’s Type 2 Incident Management Team was scheduled to assume command at 6 a.m. on June 29.
The area is under a Red Flag Warning on Friday, bringing a high potential for rapid spread. Thursday the fire was exhibiting extreme fire behavior with running, torching, crowning and spotting a quarter of a mile ahead. Evacuations were in progress and multiple residences are threatened.
#breaking We’ve got our Viaero Wireless Camera trained on the smoke plume from the 14K+ acre #SpringFire w 0% containment & no official # of homes lost. @KRDONC13 pic.twitter.com/q3GPmrPJzm
— Shannon Brinias (@ShannonBrinias) June 29, 2018
(Originally published at 11:01 a.m. MDT June 28, 2018 by Jason Pohl)
A wind-driven wildfire in Red Flag conditions blackened an estimated 4,000 acres by Thursday night in southern Colorado, officials said.
The Spring Creek Fire is burning between Walsenburg and Fort Garland in Costilla County, not far from the New Mexico border. While officials have said structures were damaged and destroyed since the fire started Wednesday, it was not immediately clear how extensive the devastation was.
According to The Denver Post:
“There have been structures lost,” said Linda Smith, spokeswoman for the San Luis Valley Emergency Operations Center. “I do not know whether they were homes. I do know there are a lot of homes in that area.”
Officials declared a disaster for the area Wednesday night.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
A Red Flag Warning is in place for Friday as much of the region continues to experience record high temperatures.
#SpringFire from La Veta pass around 8pm, and from Fort Garland around 6pm. Very active fire, stay safe. pic.twitter.com/Vo51qQcttE
— Eric Toft (@ETOFT93) June 29, 2018
As I write this, 12 hours ago the fire had burned over 78 square miles, and probably by now over 85 square miles. This area contains both actively occupied permanent resident homes and many second homes or summer vacation homes. The insurers should be hammering EPA, FEMA, DHS, Department’s of Agriculture and Interior, as well as Congress and White house to be invoking national emergency level efforts to contain all of these anthropogenic global warming related issues and develop and devote active and reserve military branches to fight, contain, and extinguish these fires. At a minimum this would establish a 30- year span budget item renewable every 30 years by congress, while also integrating the climate scientists and climate science economists to more properly direct funds from oil subsidies to fire-fighting as well as establishing source carbon tax with distribution of this tax to the general population to help develop industries that will get rid of fossil fuels and promote globally nuclear 4th generation power technology with government-owned and operated nuclear plants devoted to atmospheric Carbon removal and sequestration, while promoting Green Energy jobs and development. Learning a living will replace earning a living and transition to a global population limit framework to sustain our species and save or restore those species we have endangered because of our failure to contain or stabilize our numbers.
With adequate preparation and planning these fires could be extinguished in a handful of days not weeks. Current administration is incapable and incompetent as well as is the current congress and court. Voting should be easy and everyone eligible should be helped to vote through legal mechanisms designed to level the species potentially long, long future.
More than 14,000 acres now.
https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dfpc/current-wildfires