High Park Fire Update: June 11 at 9:13 PM (#HighParkFire)

Information from High Park Fire Public Information Officer.

High Park Fire is currently at 41,140 acres with 0% containment

Citizen briefings tomorrow at the Ranch at 9:00 a.m. & 3:00 p.m.

Media briefings are at 9:30, 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Briefings will be at Watson Lake Wildlife Area in Bellvue.

Type 1 management team assumed command of the fire this morning. Bill Hahnenberg is the Incident Commander.

Lightning has been ruled as the official cause of the fire.

There was some good progress made today with a lot of hard work by crews.
Some hand lines were established today and an anchor was established in the southwest portion of the fire.
The fire is looking better tonight than last night.
Poudre Fire Authority did a lot of good work last night through the active burning.
Point protection was established around structures.
There was a lot of air support today including a lot of water drops by the helicopters along both the south and northeast flanks of the fire. Smoke has been an issue for the air resources with reduced visibility.
Good progress was made on the northeast flank today.

Evacuation Center:

The evacuation center has been moved from Cache La Poudre Middle School in Laporte to the Ranch at I-25 and Crossroads Boulevard. This move was done because of the increasing smoke in the Laporte area.

Resources on scene:

400 ground and engine crews are fighting the fire. We expect to have 500-600 working by end of tomorrow.

5 SEATS (Single Engine Air Tankers)
2 type 3 helicopters
3 type 2 helicopters
2 type 1 helicopters
Air Attack control plane
Lead plane
5 heavy air tankers (there are only 9 available in the nation)

The Colorado National Guard provided two Blackhawk helicopters for use today either for transport or bucket drops depending on the need.

Structures damaged:

An unknown number of structures have been damaged in in the Rist Canyon, Old Flowers, Paradise Park, Stove Prairie, Stratton Park, Poudre Park, Soldier Canyon and Mill Canyon areas.

There are many unburned areas within the perimeter of the fire, so residents should not assume their homes are damaged or destroyed.

An assessment and recovery team will be working to identify specific addresses of damaged or destroyed properties but it will take some time.

Injuries:

One firefighter was taken non-emergent by ambulance out of the area for heat exhaustion the first day of the fire but there have been no other injuries reported at this time.

Road closures include:

CR23 from Lodgepole to Dixon Dam (Beginning at 10:00 pm tonight)
Highway 14 from Walden to Ted's Place
CR23 & Lodgepole/Lory State Park
CR25E & CR54E
CR27 (Stove Prairie Road) south from Highway 14
CR27 (Stove Prairie Road) one mile south of CR44H (Buckhorn Road)
CR27 & CR38E
CR27 north of CR44H
CR38E and CR25E
CR44H (Buckhorn Road) west of CR27
CR52E (Rist Canyon Road) west of CR27E
CR52E (Rist Canyon Road) CR25E Bellvue

Weather:

Cooler weather and lighter winds today helped firefighters. The weather tomorrow is expected to be warmer and drier with winds out of the southwest with gusts up to 18 miles per hour.

More information can be found at:

Public information is available at the Larimer County Emergency Information line at 970-498-5500 where Information Officers are answering the phone, and at www.larimer.org or on Twitter @larimersheriff, or Inciweb at http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2904/.

Residents can sign up to receive emergency notifications on cell phones or email at www.leta911.org .