By Erin Emery and Brandon Lowrey
The Denver Post
Copyright 2006 The Denver Post
All Rights Reserved
Fort Garland, Colo. — As crews battled wildfires across Colorado, Gov. Bill Owens signed an executive order Wednesday prohibiting open fires and fireworks on state land and committed $3 million to help fight the roughly 12,000-acre Mato Vega fire.
“Many experts are stating this summer is starting to replicate the summer of 2002. We’ve already lost more acres this year than all of last year combined,” Owens said. “So the message is: Be very careful.”
Favorable conditions for a second day allowed crews to make progress fighting the Mato Vega fire, which grew from about 9,000 acres Tuesday to 11,900 acres. It was reported to be 30 percent contained by 6 p.m. Wednesday, but fire officials remained wary.
“Even though it may not look very active, there’s a lot of fire out there,” said Steve Segin, fire information officer. “This thing is not nearly close to being out.”
U.S. 160 will remain closed between La Veta and Fort Garland for a third day today. U.S. 50 between Pueblo and Salida and U.S. 64 in New Mexico are the recommended alternate routes.
Angelica Velasquez, a waitress at Lu’s restaurant in Blanca, said the road closure has been tough on business.
“A lot of business comes from passers-by and truckers,” she said. “With none of that … it makes it a little rough. But we still have our locals who are loyal.”
Segin said the closure would remain in place until crews could create a fire line to minimize the chances of flames jumping south of the highway toward the Wagon Creek subdivision.
“It is inconvenient, but it’s critical to protect these subdivisions, to keep these homes intact,” Segin said.
Meanwhile, on the Western Slope, the Lion Creek fire, which started after a vehicle rollover Tuesday afternoon, had burned about 1,660 acres, was zero percent contained and threatened numerous houses and outbuildings in Paradox, about 50 miles southwest of Grand Junction.
The Bureau of Land Management’s Moab Field Office said 17 engines, a helicopter, several air tankers and nearly 250 people were assigned to the fire.
In Teller County, the 45-acre Wrights fire was reported to be 65 percent contained.
A fire that started Wednesday afternoon had burned up to 40 acres in a heavily wooded area of Waterton Canyon in Douglas County as of 7:45 p.m.
A total of 344 firefighters were on the Mato Vega fire Wednesday afternoon, Segin said.
Fire managers had positioned 24 engines, eight water-tenders and seven bulldozers on the ground.
Two helicopters made water drops, and a single-engine air tanker dropped retardant on hot spots trying to smother embers before the fire could move into the Paradise Acres subdivision.
Crews concentrated on the northeastern head of the blaze Wednesday in an effort to defend the 37-home neighborhood from the flames.
Firefighters dispatched to the area removed a woodpile from next to one house, laid out garden hoses in the event they were needed and leaned ladders up against roofs.
“We do the types of things we would have to do at a structure fire ahead of time, so if a structure does catch fire, we are completely prepared to go to work,” said Justin Meadore, a Colorado Springs firefighter working in the neighborhood.
Mandatory evacuations remained in place for nearly 300 homes in the Old La Veta Pass area and in the Paradise Acres and Wagon Creek subdivisions.
Carolyn Ellenz, secretary of the Paradise Acres homeowners association, returned to the area Wednesday.
“I envisioned matchsticks, a clean burn,” she said. “It’s bad enough, but I imagined worse.”
She said up to 25 people left the neighborhood, which is composed primarily of vacation homes.
Her husband, Dave Ellenz, said he told firefighters: “Next to God, you’re the greatest people in the world.”
Dave Ellenz said he watched as the fire approached the neighborhood Monday, when it exploded from several hundred to several thousand acres.
“When it broke over the ridge, I thought we had had it. But it just stopped right there.”
Fire name....Acreage....Contained....
1. Bear Creek....up to 40....0%....
2. Wrights ....45....65%....
3. Mato Vega....11,900....30%....
4. Lion Creek....1,660....0%....
Source: U.S. Forest Service