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.
