Single Publication

The strategic firing operation that occurred in Div. K over the past couple days has backed down to Middle Creek. The containment line held all day on Sunday with no spotting of fire across the line. This area and much of the ground within the fire perimeter is a mosaic of burned and unburned fuels. In upcoming days, as burning conditions allow, these pockets of unburned fuel may burn and smolder.

The work occurring on the fire is transitioning. The biggest efforts in upcoming days will focus on the backhaul of equipment and suppression repair. Backhaul involves taking equipment such as hoselays and pumps that were used in structure protection and bringing it back to camp using a vehicle or helicopter. In camp this equipment will be cleaned and returned to the supply cache for the next fire. Suppression repair work will be done to containment lines, helicopter landing spots and other places where firefighting work impacted the landscape. It is the responsibility of the incident management team to ensure that areas affected by suppression actions are returned to pre-existing conditions or better to the extent possible. This work is being done in close coordination with resource advisors from the Pike-San Isabel National Forest. Completing this work successfully will lessen the impact of this fire to Beulah and the Middle Creek Watershed. 

As containment on the fire increases, resources will continue to demobilize and go home or on to another assignment. The transition to a smaller incident management team will occur Tuesday evening. Today is the last day that the public information boards in Westcliffe, Wetmore, San Isabel and Bishop Castle will be available. The board at the Beulah General Store will remain and public information will still be available via Inciweb and Facebook.

Weather & Smoke Information:  Yesterday evening’s storms brought a few hundredths of an inch of water over the fire.  Today, temperatures will reach 76 and relative humidity levels will reach a minimum of 27%.  The U.S. Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program daily smoke outlook report specific to the fire area may be found at https://outlooks.airfire.org/outlook/d9fa3c77.    

Closures: The San Carlos Ranger District of the Pike and San Isabel National Forests issued an area, trail and road closure effective June 26, 2024. Go to www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/psicc/alerts-notices for the entire order.    Evacuations: For up-to-date evacuation information in Pueblo County, visit:  www.puebloemergency.info.

Temporary Flight Restrictions: There is a 24-hour a day Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) over the fire area. The TFR includes restrictions against private drones. Air incursions will impede firefighting efforts and ground our aircraft. All air incursions will be immediately reported to law enforcement.