High Park Fire Update: June 11 at 11:09 AM (#HighParkFire)

Information obtained from High Park Fire Public Information Officer.


High Park Fire is currently at 36,930 acres with 0% containment

2600 emergency notifications have been sent so far. These are notifications NOT homes.

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.

Citizen briefing today at the Ranch at 3:00 p.m.

Media briefings at 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.

Priorities today continue to be public/firefighter safety and structure protection.

Current evacuations include:

South of CR38E to Gindler Ranch Road west to Milner Ranch Road.

North of County Road 38E, from Horsetooth Reservoir to Redstone Canyon to Lory State park.

Bonner Peaks subdivision.

County Road 44H (Buckhorn Road) from County Road 27 to Pennock Pass and residents to the south approximately 3/4-1 mile, you will need to exit the area by going east on County Road 44H/Buckhorn Road.

CR27E to Bellvue.
Areas south and west of Bellvue to include the Lory State Park area, the Redstone Canyon area and Buckhorn Road up to the Stove Prairie School.

Poudre Canyon from MM111 to MM118 on Highway 14. This means Poudre Canyon from Stove Prairie to MM118 is under mandatory evacuations.

The area between CR27E and Stove Prairie Road and south through the entire Rist Canyon area including Davis Ranch Road, Whale Rock Road. South on CR44H 3 miles to just north of Stringtown Gulch Road


Paradise Park Road, Moose Horn Lane, Magic Lane and Spencer Mountain Road.
Old Flowers Road from Stove Prairie Road to the 8000-block of Old Flowers Road.

Stove Prairie Road north along County Road 27 to Highway 14, east along Highway 14 to approximately mile marker 111, southeast to Rist Canyon Fire Station 1, then back west to to include Wilderness Ridge Way, Rist Creek Road, Spring Valley Road and County Road 41 and all of the roads that run off of it.

The Ranch at I-25 & Crossroads Boulevard is the evacuation center. Large animals may be taken to the Ranch at I-25 & Crossroads Blvd. There is still plenty of room for animals at the Ranch. The Larimer Humane Society has reached capacity for dogs. They have some room for cats and animals smaller than a goat. They are making arrangements with others for space. Call the Larimer Humane Society at ?? for further details.

Evacuations are not expected to be lifted anytime soon.

Structures damaged:

18 structures (a mix of homes and outbuildings) have been confirmed damaged at this time. We know this number will increase once crews get their surveys done.

Homes have been damaged or destroyed in parts of Rist Canyon, Stove Prairie, Old Flowers Road, and Paradise Road areas. Some structures have been damaged or destroyed in Poudre Park but we are not sure whether there were any homes.

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.


Injuries:

One firefighter was taken non-emergent by ambulance out of the area for heat exhaustion yesterday. There have been no other injuries reported at this time.

Road closures include:

Highway 14 from Ted's Place to Stove Prairie Road
Highway 14 east of CR69
CR23 & Lodge Pole/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
CR69 & Highway 14

Highway 287 was reopened this morning.

Resources on scene:

400 ground and engine crews are fighting the fire. More resources will be arriving today.

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 is providing two Blackhawk helicopters for use today either for transport or bucket drops depending on the need.

Cause of fire:

Lightning is suspected to be the cause of the fire. Investigation still continues.

Weather:

Winds played a major role in the fire again last night driving the fire. Winds were 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 40-45 mph. Winds should be lighter today which will hopefully help efforts to start some containment.

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 .

John Schulz
Public Information Officer
Larimer County Sheriff's Office