The human-sparked Pearl fire burning west of Fort Collins in Larimer County is 75% contained, fire officials announced Saturday.
The Pearl fire — a wildfire that started on private property in Larimer County on Monday — is burning on 128 acres of land near Red Feather Lakes, fire officials said. That’s nearly the same size as 97 football fields put together.
Containment isn’t the end of a wildfire, it’s merely the status of a control line being completed around the fire that can stop the flames’ spread. A wildfire can continue to burn for days or weeks after being fully contained.
Larimer County officials are still investigating what started the Pearl fire but said it was human-caused.
As rain and snow move in Saturday afternoon on northern Colorado — creating more favorable firefighting conditions — the Incident Management Team plans to reduce the number of resources assigned to the fire, according to a news release from the U.S. Forest Service.
Residents in the Crystal Lakes area living off of Pearl Beaver Road, Bear Ridge Drive, Mount Hellene Drive and near Deadman Lookout remain on mandatory evacuation orders Saturday, according to the county evacuation map.
The Forest Service also issued a closure order for the immediate fire area.
As wildfires burned thousands of acres across the Front Range on Wednesday, some residents heeded early morning calls to leave while others opted to stay put on land that already required extra self-sufficiency.
At the Dakota Ridge High School, the evacuation site for the Quarry fire burning near Deer Creek Canyon in Jefferson County, John Banks coughed in the parking lot as smoke from the fire threatening his neighborhood hung heavily in the air.
Banks and his wife, Diane, fled the fire early Wednesday after a 1:30 a.m. phone call ordered them to evacuate.
The couple slept in their car overnight with their rescue cat, Mea, and the few items they scooped from their home after the evacuation call: medications, some clothes, John’s oxygen tanks and cancer medications, and Mea’s food and litter.
They left everything else behind in the home where they’ve lived for 34 years.
“These are just things,” said Banks, 78.
He paused, emotion creeping into his voice.
“If you lose things, you still have your friends, your family.”
The couple found a hotel to stay in for the next night and planned to spend Wednesday going to pre-scheduled doctor appointments.
“Life throws spitballs at you,” John Banks said. “But you keep going.”
When the couple arrived at the evacuation center at Dakota Ridge High School at 3 a.m. Wednesday, they were one of the first people to arrive.
By 9 a.m., dozens of cars were parked at the school — some of the nearly 600 households ordered to evacuate from the Quarry fire. A few evacuees took time to walk their dogs. In the next lot over, a Denver Fire Department crew suited up to respond to the fire.
Elden Coombs, 85, sat with his neighbors in the parking lot waiting for news. He moved to the Homewood Park neighborhood in 1969 and has lived through two other fires, a blizzard and two floods.
Quarry fire evacuee Elden Coombs waits in the shade at the evacuation center at Dakota Ridge High School in Jefferson County on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. Coombs had to evacuate from the Homewood Park area. (Photo by Andy Cross/ The Denver Post)
He left his home after getting the evacuation call at about 2 a.m. He grabbed some clothes, important documents and his medicine and fled.
“I haven’t been to bed,” he said. “I just hope they get the fire under control.”
At the frontlines of the Stone Canyon fire north of Lyons, Boulder County sheriff’s Sgt. Cody Sears patrolled the still-unburned areas where flames were flaring and spreading.
“So far, so good. We’ll see what the winds do,” Sears said as he rolled out around 11 a.m. Wednesday
He went first to an area where flames had taken a run to the northeast, threatening evacuated houses a couple of miles north of Lyons, then headed to terrain straddling Boulder and Larimer counties, a few miles south of the Alexander Mountain Fire — where residents apparently had elected to stay, hunkering down on their land.
Through smoke on Dakota Ridge Road, Sears spotted two horses: one brown, one white. He radioed county animal control crews, alerting them to a possible rescue. He was uneasy. “This fire is still really active,” he said.
But he and fellow officers, reaching homes there, found residents well in control.
At a front door in the area, Carmen Roberts, 50, came to the door and told him she and her family had stayed through the night. They had water tanks, heavy equipment, and were ready to evacuate with their horses if the flames came too close, she said.
Boulder County sheriff’s Sgt. Cody Sears talks to Carmen Roberts about her decision to remain in her home and not evacuate despite the incoming Stone Canyon fire near Lyons on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
“We’ve have been here over 30 years. We’ve been through these things several times,” Roberts said. “We have everything packed, out by the door. We are going to go if we need to.”
They’d slept a bit through the night. “When it happens over and over and over, the stress is less,” she said.
Yet fire perils seem to be increasing along Colorado’s Front Range, Roberts acknowledged. The problem is more and more people moving in, she said. “Fire is worse now because it affects more people. It is threatening more homes because there are more homes around.”
Near the top of Stone Canyon, business owner Matthew Lee, too, had spent the night on his property — 80 acres where he’d grazed cattle this spring before moving them away about three weeks ago, leaving the grass short enough to ease his worries.
The fire was burning within a quarter mile of his metal-roofed house.
He’d parked down the hill and, leaning on the back of his truck, looked upward. On Tuesday night, power went out at 10:30 p.m. and his cellphone went dead, said Lee, 55.
Early Wednesday, he told Sears, flames crested over the ridge. Slurry bombers dropped red fire retardant on that terrain as he watched.
He had declined to evacuate — like other self-reliant residents in the foothills north of Lyons. He lauded Colorado’s approach of aggressive fire suppression, dousing flames before fires can run their natural course.
“The most I have seen,” he said. “Yesterday, it was an air show. That’s good.”
Firefighters work on fighting the Alexander Mountain Fire that continues to burn near Sylvan Dale Ranch west of Loveland on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
In Jefferson County the Quarry fire burns near Deer Creek Canyon forcing evacuations early in the morning on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post)
Smoke rises from the Stone Canyon fire near Lyons on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
A single engine air tanker drops retardant on the Stone Canyon fire near Lyons on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
A CH-47D Chinook helicopter ripples the water with its rotor blades, creating a rainbow as it reloads with water at Green Ridge Glade Reservoir, while another helicopter passes in the background to help fight the Alexander Mountain fire west of Loveland on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
A helicopter heads back to take water out of Green Ridge Glade Reservoir as they help battle the Alexander Mountain Fire west of Loveland on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
The sun peeks through the thick smoke as an entire hill burns as part of the Alexander Mountain fire west of Loveland, Colorado on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
Firefighters battle the orange blaze of the Alexander Mountain fire west of Loveland, Colorado on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
Firefighters battle the orange blaze of the Alexander Mountain fire west of Loveland, Colorado on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
Todd Buseman, 22, stands next to his car to watch helicopters reload from the Green Ridge Glade Reservoir as smoke rises from the Alexander Mountain fire west of Loveland, Colorado on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
A tattered American flag blows in the wind along Glade Road west of Loveland on July 30, 2024. The Alexander Mountain Fire continues to burn in the background consuming over 5000 acres as of Tuesday night. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Firefighters help fight the Alexander Mountain Fire near Sylvan Dale Ranch that continues to burn west of Loveland on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Smoke rises from the Stone Canyon fire near Lyons on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
David Glover, left, and his wife Taylor pack for evacuation in Lyons on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
A large helicopter flies over the Alexander Mountain Fire burning west of Loveland on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Evan Mann puts essentials into the car as he and his wife, Deborah, pack up their house as they evacuate from the Alexander Mountain fire west of Loveland on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. Their house off of County Road 27 was roughly a mile from the closest portion of the fire. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
Flames can be seen near houses from the Alexander Mountain fire west of Loveland on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
Lizzy Mann, 8, eats a popsicle while watching the Alexander Mountain Fire from her grandparents house off of Glade Road west of Loveland, Colorado on July 30, 2024. She and her family were evacuated from their home further west and closer to the fire but their grandparents home are under evacuation orders as well. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Deborah Mann, left, and her son, Basil Mann, 6, on his small ATV, try to stay cool eating popsicles at the home of Mann’s parents while the Alexander Mountain Fire continues to burn in the foothills west of their home off of Glade Road near Loveland on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
The Alexander Mountain Fire continues burning west of Loveland near Loveland, Colorado on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
The sun is obscured by dark smoke from the Alexander Mountain Fire burning west of Loveland, Colorado on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
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Firefighters work on fighting the Alexander Mountain Fire that continues to burn near Sylvan Dale Ranch west of Loveland on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies are going door to door to evacuate residents along South Turkey Creek Road for a growing wildfire that closed U.S. 285 in both directions.
U.S. 285 is closed near Indian Hills as crews fight a 3-acre wildfire, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on X.
Deputies are evacuating residents along South Turkey Creek Road to U.S. 285.
The highway is closed between Surrey Drive and Summer Road, south of Morrison, the Colorado Department of Transportation said in a travel alert.
Wildland fire in #Jeffco along Hwy 285. Fire size is currently 3 acres and growing. Hwy 285 closed in both directions for fire suppression efforts. Two helicopters working the fire along with multiple ground crews. Door to door evacuations along S. Turkey Creek to Hwy 285. pic.twitter.com/omfLKR4EbA
Crews used helicopters and pack mules to remove heavy firefighting and radio equipment from the area this week and are also working to restore areas disturbed by firefighting efforts.
Firefighters gained 100% containment on the Dinosaur fire Saturday night, emergency officials said in a post on X. Fire crews will continue to monitor the area Sunday to make sure it’s fully extinguished.
The fire sparked on the second switchback near the Mallory Cave Trail on Friday morning burned across 4 acres — approximately three football fields — but did not lead to any pre-evacuation or evacuation orders.
Trails in the area are expected to reopen Sunday or Monday.
Fire officials ordered evacuations in Arapahoe County Saturday after a brush fire burning southeast of Byers spread to at least one home and threatened others.
Multiple fire departments and the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s office responded to a brush fire Saturday morning in the 2400 block of South Quail Hollow Road, according to an 11:20 a.m. statement from the sheriff’s office.
South Metro Fire Rescue said seven crews responded to support Byers Fire Rescue in wildland and structure fire protection.
“The fire, which is currently about the size of a football field, is burning several hundred yards from homes,” sheriff’s officials said when crews first arrived on scene.
By 11:42 a.m., the fire had spread to at least one home and sheriff’s officials said more may be involved.
Deputies have evacuated a three-mile area near County Road 193 and County Road 34, sheriff’s officials said.
As of 11:45 a.m., no injuries had been reported and the fire was burning in the southeast direction.
Homes along Middle Creek Canyon Road are still under mandatory evacuation orders, and homes on Vine Mesa, Cascade Avenue, Pine Avenue and Beulah Highlands Road are on pre-evacuation, fire officials said Wednesday.
Fire crews are working to construct fire lines along the fire’s edge as well as away from the fire’s edge and are mainly focusing on protecting structures, according to the update. Firefighters are focusing on the eastern edge to keep the fire from advancing toward Beulah.
The National Forest Service closed the Pike-San Isabel National Forests west of Beulah until July 26 because of the fire, from Forest Road 386 to the north to Colorado 78 to the south and Colorado 165 to the west.
Closed trails include South Creek, Second Mace, Second Mace Spur, Silver Circle, Left Hand, Squirrel Creek, Mountain Park, Coupler, Dome Rock and Middle Creek, according to the agency.
Davenport Campground, Second Mace/Squirrel Creek Trailhead, Mingus Cabin and Squirrel Creek Interpretive Site are also closed.
