Wednesday, July 25, 2012 9PM
Durango - Firefighters and aircraft have been working several new fire starts in southwest Colorado Wednesday afternoon; seven in La Plata County and one each in Archuleta and Montezuma Counties. Three of the fires in La Plata County were located along the County Road 240 corridor:
North:located on the Taylor Ranch property in Durango Hills, approximately .2 acre
Cutoff: located on BLM land SE of Helen’s Store and west of Enchanted Forest Estates, approximately .25 acre
Vosburg Pike: Located on BLM land near the intersection of County Roads 225 and 228, approximately 3 acres
The Pinyon 2 fire, estimated at 20 acres, is the largest of the new fire starts and is burning west of County Road 140 and southwest of Red Mesa on Southern Ute lands, off County Road 106. A heavy air tanker was able to box the fire in with retardant and hand crews will begin building containment line on Thursday.
Another fire burning on the west side of the county off County Road 117, the Vista fire, was contained at .3 acre.
Because of the recent Air Park Fire, there was still a Type 1 and 2 Type 3 helicopters in the area to respond to these new fire starts. One heavy air tanker and one single-engine air tanker were called in to help as well. Aircraft was used in the most populated areas first and fortunately, all fires were caught before they were a real threat to any homes. All the fire starts were started by lightning that passed through the area in the last several days.
Contact: Pam Wilson, Public Information Officer, 970-799-1179.