(UPDATE at 8:30 a.m. MDT, June 25, 2013)
There was no major change in the East Peak Fire over the last 24 hours. Below is a Monday evening update from the Incident Management Team:
In spite of high winds, low humidity and critical fuel conditions, growth on the East Peak Fire was minimal and containment increased to 50%. The estimated size of the fire is 13,388 acres. Due to the wind, helicopters were grounded for most of the day. Despite the challenge of high winds, firefighters made progress in mop up and patrolling the fire perimeter and engine crews ensured structure protection. Mop up and patrol will continue for the overnight shift and into tomorrow. Resources continue to arrive, totaling in 631 personnel assigned to this fire.
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(UPDATE at 8:25 a.m. MDT June 24, 2013)
Under overcast skies on Sunday there was not much change in the East Peak Fire. It was most active on the west and southeast sides and grew by a few hundred acres, bringing its total to about 12,800 acres.
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(UPDATE at 8:55 p.m. MDT, June 23, 2013)
Below is an update from the Incident Management Team at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday:
Overcast conditions set up a successful burnout operation on the East Peak Fire today. “I’m very pleased with the results of the burnout today. It went really smoothly”, said Craig Beckner, Operations Section Chief. Aided by favorable winds from southeast, the burnout operation helped to reinforce control line on the southern boundary of the fire.
On the western perimeter, a very large airtanker made a retardant drop that will assist firefighters with constructing handline tomorrow in very steep terrain.
Cooler conditions and overcast skies kept the fire from gaining much acreage and is now at 12,996 acres.
Mandatory evacuations are still in effect for a large portion of the fire area. However, Huerfano County Sheriff, Bruce Newmann, started letting residents back into some closure areas.
Air Tanker 910, a DC-10, dropped 46,400 gallons of retardant on the fire today in four sorties.
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(UPDATE at 8:24 a.m. MDT, June 23, 2013)
The East Peak Fire in southern Colorado grew by about 1,000 acres Saturday, bringing its total to approximately 12,000 acres. It is 11 miles southwest of Walsenburg and about 9 miles west of Aguilar.
There are an estimated 300 properties within the evacuation area. An American Red Cross shelter has been established at the John Mall High School in Walsenburg, Colorado. Evacuated animals, large or small can be taken to the Fairgrounds in La Veta, Colorado.
The Incident Management Team reports that 10 “primary” structures have burned along with 4 outbuildings.
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(UPDATE at 5:15 p.m. MDT, June 22, 2013)
The incident management team running the East Peak Fire sent this Tweet at 3:21 p.m. Saturday:
Walsenburg remains in a PRE-evacuation status – no evacuation notices are happening at this time. #EastPeakFire
— RMIMTeamC (@TeamC_FireInfo) June 22, 2013
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(Originally published at 9:47 a.m. MDT, June 22, 2013)
The East Peak fire has burned about 11,000 acres in the southern part of Colorado 25 miles from the New Mexico border. As you can see from the map above, at 11 p.m. Friday night it was approximately 7 miles west of Aguilar and about 10 miles southwest of Walsenburg, according to the data provided by the satellite. The location of the square icons can be as much as a mile in error.
Rocky Mountain Type 2 Incident Management Team C, with Incident Commander Jay Esperance, assumed command of the Fire at 6:00 pm, Friday, June 21.
