By Ivan Moreno
Rocky Mountain News (Denver)
Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company
A rapidly spreading wildfire in Costilla County spurred several people in Forbes Wagon Creek Ranch and Forbes Park to evacuate their homes Monday and closed part of U.S. 160, the sheriff’s office said.
The fire, called the Mato Vega Fire, was at 200 acres Sunday, grew by 300 acres overnight Sunday and had reached at least 2,500 acres by nightfall Monday, said Larry Hel-merick, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.
The fire was so intense at one point that firefighters were pulled off the line, said Steve Segin, fire information officer for the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team.
About 150 firefighters from across the San Luis Valley were battling the blaze Monday, according to the Costilla County Sheriff’s Office.
The lightning-caused fire was burning toward the northwest, about eight miles west of La Veta Pass, Segin said. U.S. 160 was closed between Fort Garland and Walsenburg, and mandatory evacuations were in place, said Jacob Vigil, a sheriff’s office dispatcher.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency also said Monday it will help fund the efforts to fight the fire after learning that more than 200 homes were threatened, including as many as seven historic buildings.
Temporary shelters have been set up at Fort Garland Community Center and Sierra Grande High School, the sheriff’s office said.
Segin said the fire is burning ponderosa pine, sage and grass. Five single-engine air tankers, one heavy air tanker, and four hand crews were fighting the fire Monday.
The fire danger in western and southern Colorado is extremely high, according to the Colorado Division of Emergency Management.
“We’re in a red flag warning today (Monday),” Helmerick said. “We expect more fires to pop up.”
“The lowest fire danger we have in Colorado is high,” he said.
Within the past week, 15,000 acres have burned in Prowers County, Helmerick said, after more than a dozen lightning-caused grass fires. That brings the total number of acres burned this year to 75,671, up from 41,040 last year, Helmerick said.
And the season has only begun to heat up, he said.
“We’re not even in summer yet,” he said.
Elsewhere in Colorado, a fire five miles southwest of Williams Fork Reservoir in Grand County had burned 10 acres Monday afternoon, and two small grass fires were also burning in Larimer County on Monday, though the size of the fires was less than an acre.