This story was originally published by Colorado Public Radio.
Updated 12:40 p.m., Monday March 28, 2022
The NCAR fire held steady overnight, with acreage and containment lines remaining about the same. The fire, now 35 percent contained, has so far burned 190 acres since it ignited Saturday afternoon near the Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Firefighters are optimistic of another good day toward full containment, but remain cautious due to continued high fire conditions and strong winds.
“Wind is always a concern, but I'm confident our lines will hold,” incident commander Brian Oliver said at a Monday morning press conference.
Temperatures are expected to drop Tuesday, along with some light rain in the Boulder area.
Nearby open space, including hiking trails close to the fire and Eldorado Canyon State Park, are still closed to the public, with no estimated time of reopening. Boulder officials are asking hikers to avoid accidentally wandering into the burn area.
“The trails here are very web-like, so they might go on a trail to start that they think is open and then end up going closer towards the fire,” said Marya Washburn, public information officer for Boulder Fire-Rescue.
On Sunday, more than 150 firefighters worked to push the fire towards the rocks and snow. Officials feel confident the fire is contained on the southern and eastern boundaries — which are nearest to homes and neighborhoods.
"Right now we are in a good position, the wind speeds are nothing like they were during Marshall," Mike Smith, Incident Commander for Boulder Fire Rescue, said at a press conference Sunday morning when crews were at 21 percent containment. "We have a lot of good resources in place. As long as the weather does what it's supposed to do today and tomorrow, we are in good shape. There's no guarantees for any of this."
By Sunday afternoon, much of the fire had been pushed to "Billy goat country" and forward progress had been stopped, according to Smith.
There are no reported injuries, missing people or damaged structures. Officials do not yet know the cause of the fire and the Boulder Sheriff's Office is investigating.
According to Smith, the fire came within 1,000 yards of homes on the edge of Boulder on Saturday, but firefighters were able to keep the blaze at bay thanks to fire repellant dropped from a small airtanker.
Smith said light wind speeds on Saturday allowed crews to fly the fixed-wing airtanker to fight the fire by dropping repellant from the sky, setting up a line of red repellant between the black burned earth of the fire and homes just down the slope. On Sunday, two airtankers were available but a helicopter was used instead as a more strategic way to put out hotspots.
During the Marshall fire, 100 mph winds grounded most aircraft and prevented firefighters from flying that day — depriving them of a crucial tool for fighting wildfires.
"These are two different animals," Smith said, when comparing NCAR to the Marshall fire. "It's a little bit of apples and oranges just because of the wind speed and the location."
"One of the things that we learned from the Marshall fire was how to rapidly escalate and integrate multiple agencies and get them to work together," Smith said when asked what improvements have been made since the Marshall fire that devastated Boulder County only three months ago. "We continue to learn from every one of these fires."
More than 1,000 homes and buildings burned in the Marshall fire, which occurred on December 30th of last year, far outside of the traditional fire season. Smith expressed concern about the rest of 2022 after having worked a incident commander for two major winter fires already.
“We only have 365 fire days a year,” Smith said. “It's March and it feels like it’s November. We are nervous about the season coming up. When you look at the long-term forecast for the upcoming season, I think this is just a sign of the way things are going to go.
Officials dramatically decreased the evacuation zone at around 11p.m. Saturday night, hoping to allow as many people as possible to safely spend the night at home. Nearly 700 homes were still under evacuation as of Sunday, about 1,629 people according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management. And hiking trails remained closed.
Smith said overnight temperatures and moisture helped give crews an upper hand. However, Sunday’s forecast called for wind gusts of 20 mph and more dry conditions. Smith expressed gratitude when that forecast did not come to pass, and instead Sunday saw mild winds and colder temperatures.
Smith noted a positive takeaway from NCAR fire was a burning off of the understory — the brush and pine debris on the forest floor that can often act as kindling and cause larger, hotter flames — which could help prevent more damaging fires in the future.
"I don't want to say that any wildfire is good, but there are upsides to this," Smith said, whose job at the Boulder City Fire Department includes conducting prescribed burns.
“Anytime we have fire on the landscape and we don’t lose structures and we have no injuries or life lost, we can see that there is an upside to it. We never like to see this in an emergency situation. We’d much rather plan this and go through the process. But there will be some benefits for this going forward.”
CPR's Ryan Warner contributed to this report.
