It was a tough weekend for crews battling the 83,205 acre High Park Fire in Northern Colorado. 57 additional homes in the Glacier View area were burnt over the weekend.
That brings the tally to 248 residences affected by the fire. The fire is 45% contained.
“The toll is disappointing and concerning, but it could have been much worse,” said Nick Christensen with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. “Due to the firefighters’ efforts they were able to save a large number of homes and get people out safely.”
Christensen said that evacuations had to occur very rapidly. He added that a bulldozer line was installed near the Glacier View area that saved an additional 100 homes from being burnt.
Hot and dry conditions over the weekend fueled a number of new wildfires across the state, including Estes Park. That fire destroyed 22 homes, and is now 100 percent contained.
Incident Commander Beth Lund says crews with the High Park Fire aren’t discouraged by the continued heat and red flag conditions.
“We’re just persistent,” she said. “We pace ourselves, we pay attention, and we get on things as fast as we can if we see things changing.”
Lund represents a new Type I Incident Management Team that officially transitions on Monday to manage the High Park Fire communication efforts. The federal teams are rotated every two weeks.
