An interstate fire in Wyoming and Colorado, 25 air miles southwest of Laramie, WY
Progression of Mullen Fire, Oct. 5, 2020. Situation Unit Leader, Sonya Feaster.
Monday afternoon update from the Incident Management Team for the 151,711-acre Mullen fire in Wyoming and Colorado, 25 air miles southwest of Laramie, WY:
“The fire is very active in the northern part south of Centennial between Albany and Keystone along the 542 road. Strong afternoon winds from the west are hampering firefighters efforts as they try to keep the fire south of the road. A predicted shift to bring winds more from the northwest could prove helpful in this effort.
“The fire will continue to produce smoke and possibly large visible smoke columns Monday afternoon.
“The Southern Area Type 1 Incident Management Team is shadowing the Rocky Mountain Blue Team this afternoon to ensure a smooth transition of leadership Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m.”
Mullen Fire. USFS photo.Mullen Fire, night firing, October 1, 2020, by Zach Alexander.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Mullen Fire, including the most recent, click here.
Map of the Mullen Fire. The red line was the perimeter at 12:15 a.m. MDT October 2, 2020. The white line was the perimeter about 48 hours before.
The Mullen Fire that started September 17 in Wyoming 12 miles north of the Colorado border has spread south into Colorado. At 12:15 a.m. Friday a mapping flight determined it had progressed to the intersection of Colorado Highways 127 and 125 about four miles north of Cowdrey. Firefighters are conducting strategic firing operations along portions of Highway 127 and Wyoming Highway 230 to protect structures.
In Colorado the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office has ordered evacuations for “the east side of Jackson County Road 8 along the eastern range north to the sand dunes following up to Highway 127, and along Jackson County Road 6E.” The most current information is on CodeRED and on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Mullen Fire, including the most recent, click here.
On Thursday the incident management team reported that the Mullen Fire had burned 118,778 acres. After an overnight mapping flight the team may add another 8,000 to 9,000 acres to that figure. (Update at 12:56 p.m. October 2: the incident management team updated the size to 127,503 acres.)
Forecast for wildfire smoke in the Colorado area at 8 p.m. MDT October 2, 2020
The Mullen Fire is producing large quantities of smoke that has been pushed to the south and southeast. On Friday it is predicted to heavily affect Rocky Mountain National Park, Boulder, and Denver.
The fire area is under a Red Flag Warning Friday. The forecast for the southern portion of the fire calls for a high temperature of 62, relative humidity of 16 percent, and winds from the west and northwest at 13 to 16 mph. Conditions will be similar on Saturday, with slightly stronger winds and slightly higher humidity.
The 125,271-acre Cameron Peak Fire, 26 miles southwest of the Mullen Fire, has been growing much more slowly than the Mullen Fire in recent days.
Map of the Mullen and Cameron Peak Fires, October 2, 2020.An air tanker maneuvers over the Mullen Fire Sept. 30, 2020. It is either a BAe-146 or an RJ 85. InciWeb photo.
Beginning next week at the fire west of Fort Collins, Colorado, personnel will be tested as they are demobilized if they request it
Map of the Cameron Peak Fire at 4:35 a.m. MDT August 27, 2020.
Three engine crew members working the night shift on the Cameron Peak Fire 32 miles west of Fort Collins, Colorado tested positive earlier this week for COVID-19. Five others at the 22,845-acre fire were considered exposed, so all eight were quarantined.
“It was three people off of one engine,” that tested positive, said Kevin Ratzmann the Medical Unit Leader for the fire. “One individual [initially] tested positive for COVID August 24. He started having a little shortness of breath so he was tested at the local hospital.”
The other two members of the engine crew also tested positive.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Cameron Peak Fire, including the most recent, click here.
Before the first person who tested positive received his results, he came back to the fire camp and potentially exposed others, so five more people were put on precautionary quarantine. Local public health personnel determined that those five individuals were exposed within six feet for 15 minutes or longer, so they were quarantined out of an abundance of caution, explained Mr. Ratzmann. “Not one of [those five] have any symptoms,” he said. “They were all tested today [August 28]. We are waiting on the results and will test them again in three days and if they are all clear they will return to work.”
The person on the engine crew that reported symptoms claimed a medical exemption for wearing a mask, but the incident management team is now requiring everyone to wear a mask except when they are actually fighting fire on the fire line.
Many of the activities normally located at the incident command post have been converted to virtual systems or using QR codes, including check-in, demobilization, and meetings.
After contact tracing was completed, no personnel at the fire other than the eight that were isolated or quarantined were tested for COVID-19. However, the incident management team is offering voluntary COVID testing to others on the fire. Mr. Ratzmann said it was mostly because their home unit wanted the testing, not because they have symptoms. He said it took about two days to receive test results on the Pine Gulch Fire, another blaze in Colorado where he was assigned earlier, as the incident management team was tested when they demobilized.
Mr. Ratzmann said that starting early next week anyone at the Cameron Peak Fire who is being demobilized will be tested once if they request it. The national situation report shows 730 personnel assigned to the fire.
There are 38 people working in the Medical Unit at the incident command post, including personnel on the 5 ambulances. That is a larger staff for a Medical Unit on a 730-person fire than in the pre-COVID era.
The Cameron Peak fire has been less active in the last couple of days. Satellites orbiting more than 200 miles overhead have not been able to pick up very many large heat sources. However, there are undoubtably numerous areas on the fire that are still burning and where much still needs to be accomplished by firefighters. Most of the areas detected by satellites were on the northeast side, four to five miles northeast of Chambers Lake.
If the Pine Gulch Fire 12 miles north of Grand Junction, Colorado continues growing at the pace it has shown for the last couple of days, it will soon become the largest fire in the state’s recorded history, surpassing the Hayman Fire that burned 137,760 acres in 2002. On Wednesday the Pine Gulch Fire was 135,920 acres, an increase of 1,795 in the previous 24 hours.
The area was under a flash flood watch Wednesday afternoon for heavy rain from thunderstorms that could lead to flooding and debris flows.
In the last week the only large heat sources that satellites could detect were on the northwest edge where it has been spreading recently and in the interior. There are undoubtably many smaller hot areas still burning or smoldering that the satellites orbiting over 200 miles overhead could not detect.
The red line was the perimeter of the Pine Gulch Fire at 12:09 p.m. MDT August 26, 2020. The white line was the perimeter two days before.Pine Gulch Fire August 21, 2020. InciWeb.Pine Gulch Fire August 21, 2020. InciWeb.Firefighters on Pine Gulch Fire during night shift, August 17, 2020. InciWeb.Single engine air tanker reloading while working the Pine Gulch Fire August 24, 2020, InciWeb.
Lightning on the Pine Gulch Fire at 12:47 a.m. MDT August 19, 2020. Image by Grand Junction NSW. White text and arrows added by Wildfire Today.
The Pine Gulch Fire 15 miles north of Grand Junction, Colorado created its own weather very early this morning. It took a combination of several factors, including low relative humidity, an unstable atmosphere, plenty of available fuels (vegetation), and strong outflow winds from a thunderstorm to the north that blew through the fire area between 10:20-10:30 p.m. This caused the fire to increase in intensity and the development of a very large pyrocumulus cloud over the smoke column that created lightning.
Here is the tweet from the National Weather Service that accompanied the image above:
The Weather Service said the lightning lasted for hours and Grand Junction residents could hear the thunder.
Did you hear thunder in Grand Junction last night? That’s right…the #PineGulchFire produced hours of lightning and occasionally the bolts were visible. Here is a video taken at our office. The 3rd largest wildfire in Colorado’s recorded history is full of surprises. #cowxpic.twitter.com/1u4ZlaEtlG
Below is map of the fire showing the perimeter at 1:49 a.m MDT August 19, 2020.
The red line on the map was the perimeter of the Pine Gulch Fire at 1:58 a.m. MDT August 19, 2020. The white line was the perimeter three days before.
The Pine Gulch Fire grew by 37,899 acres on August 18, bringing size up to 125,108 acres.
The Garfield County Sheriff issued new evacuation orders for the northwest side of the Pine Gulch fire August 19.
From the Mesa County line north to the east/west Colorado Highway 256 (Four A Ridge Road) including north/south CO Hwy 256. 256/205 moving from pre-evacuation to full evacuation.
From Highway 139 Douglas Pass road east to the preexisting evacuation order for Carr Creek Road (207).
This includes CO Hwy 205 Salt Wash and Kimball Creek Road (202) on Kimball Mountain.
CO Hwy 258/King Road is evacuated.
Pine Gulch Fire Tuesday night, August 18, 2020. InciWeb.
The Wyoming Hotshots on the Pine Gulch Fire August 7, 2020. InciWeb.
A week ago when I was talking with a colleague about the national wildfire situation we agreed there was a “lull” in the action. With new fires in California and Colorado since then, that has changed.
In southern California on August 12 the Lake Fire west of Lancaster grew large enough 29 minutes after it was reported to create pyrocumulus clouds above the smoke column. Three hours later it was 10,000 acres and Friday had blackened at least 17,000 acres.
But much of the focus has turned Colorado where four large fires are out of control.
Map showing four large wildfires in Colorado, August 15, 2020.
The Pine Gulch Fire 15 miles north of Grand Junction, Colorado at 73,381 acres Saturday became the fourth largest fire in the recorded history of the state. The Rocky Mountain Type 1 Incident Management Team with Dan Dallas as Incident Commander assumed command of the Friday morning after transitioning with the type 2 team.
The Grizzly Creek Fire just east of Glenwood Springs has been adding thousands of acres every day since it started August 10. Interstate 70 has been closed since then due to the fire.
View of the Grizzly Creek Fire from a helicopter August 14, 2020. InciWeb.
The newest of the four large fires in Colorado is the Williams Fork Fire 10 air miles southeast of Williams Fork Reservoir and 19 miles southeast of Kremmling reported just before noon Friday August 14. Firefighters estimated Friday night it was 1,300 acres and said it is exhibiting extreme fire behavior as it moves east and northeast toward Church Park. The fire is currently holding east of CR 30 and south of Keyser Creek in an area with intensive beetle kill from the early 2000s. Henderson Mill and its infrastructure along with multiple other utilities are in the immediate area.
Map showing heat on the Williams Fork Fire detected by a satellite at 3:54 a.m. MDT August 15.
The Cameron Peak Fire has been burning since August 13 in the Rawah Wilderness on the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests near Highway 14 and Chambers Lake. It is 36 air miles west of Fort Collins, Colorado and as of Friday night had burned about 5,424 acres. Mike Haydon’s Type 2 Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team Blue will assume command today, August 15. The Cameron Peak Fire started west of Chambers Lake and has crossed Highway 14 to the east, burning nearly 800 acres on the south side of the highway.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Cameron Peak Fire including the most recent, click here.
The red line was the perimeter of the Cameron Peak Fire at 10:30 p.m. MDT August 14, 2020. The white line was the perimeter about 24 hours before.
