Four major burns in Colorado – including one that has grown to be the largest in the state’s history and another that has closed an almost 60-mile stretch of Interstate 70 for five days – asked Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday to order a temporary ban on open fires.
The Pine Gulch Fire, which has burned more than 87,000 acres near Grand Junction since it was struck by lightning on July 31, swept the 2012 High Park Fire on Tuesday as the fourth largest in state history , according to the Denver Post. It’s just 7% contained.
It is just one of four fires the respondents are fighting in the state. The other three are, according to the governor’s office, the Grizzly Creek Fire in Glenwood Canyon, the Williams Fork Fire in Grand County, and the Cameron Peak Fire at Redfeather Lakes.
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In response to the fires, Police in a statement Tuesday banned “campfires, fireworks and other open sources of ignition” for 30 days. He said many counties in western Colorado already had similar bans in place, but making the ban statewide provides “message clarity.”
“Since fires are frequent between counties and between jurisdictions, this will help reduce all of our risk,” Polis said. “As we have said before during coronavirus and Coloradans have been successful, now is not the time to party, we are adding now that now is not the time to have campfires or fireworks.”
Air tankers were dispatched Monday with firefighters to fight the Pine Gulch Fire, Dan Dallas, incident commander with the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team, wrote in a press release.
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“I am grateful for the more than 2,000 men and women on the ground and in the air who are fighting these fires, and working to protect our communities and the beautiful natural resources of Colorado,” Polis said. in a statement. “Colorado is no stranger to wildfires like this and we have been proactively prepared for this season.”
The governor’s office called the Grizzly Creek Fire “the No. 1 fire priority in the nation.” It has burned 27,269 acres with 4% fertilizer, according to the White River National Forest. The cause of the fire is unknown and has led to a continuous shutdown of parts of Interstate 70.
The Williams Fork Fire burned 6,627 acres on Tuesday afternoon. The Cameron Peak Fire grew to just over 14,000 acres on Tuesday night. Both fires are on mostly federal land, the Polis bureau said in a statement.
