Crews Look for Edge Over Fire

June 19, 2002

President Bush declared Colorado a major disaster area today because of wildfires, making federal loans available for families and businesses that lost property.


The Hayman Fire jumped to 136,000 acres today, according to the U.S. Forest Service, but firefighters began taking some hope from slightly lower temperatures and weaker winds.

The ferocious Hayman Fire continued its path of destruction late Tuesday, sparing Woodland Park for now but forcing a new wave of evacuations as it shifted directions.

Two thousand residents in Perry Park, southwest of Castle Rock, were ordered to evacuate as the fire moved within about six miles of them. The Douglas County sheriff ordered the evacuation of about 600 homes around 9:50 p.m., telling residents to be out by midnight.

Residents of 14 homes along Rampart Range Road, in northern El Paso and southern Douglas County, had been evacuated earlier Tuesday evening when the Hayman Fire moved farther east, within about 3 1/2 miles of the El Paso County line.

All day Tuesday, firefighters struggled to gain the upper hand, as Woodland Park also faced potential evacuation and Denver choked in a smoky haze.

Douglas County Sheriff's Lt. Attila Denes called Tuesday "the worst day yet" in the 12 days the blaze has been raging.

Meanwhile, across the Continental Divide, the Missionary Ridge Fire raged near Durango. Officials fighting that blaze said it could increase in size to 100,000 acres.

From Monday night into early Tuesday evening, Missionary Ridge's total burn area increased from 13,520 acres to 44,320 acres.

"In my 33 years of firefighting, (the Hayman Fire) is one of the biggest disasters I've been associated with in terms of size, risks to homes and firefighter safety," said situation unit leader Pat Shreffler of the Kern County (Calif.) Fire Department.

At least two more homes were lost Tuesday in Douglas County's Westcreek subdivision, 10 miles northwest of Woodland Park. The total damage now stands at more than 25 homes, one business and 13 outbuildings destroyed.

As the fire marched east and southeast Tuesday, the 7,000 residents of Woodland Park were waiting to hear whether they'd be ordered to flee. As night came, that alarm had not been sounded.

Hayman, the largest wildfire in Colorado history, enveloped at least 7,000 additional acres Tuesday and has now consumed more than 120,000 acres, tearing through previously untouched stands of timber within its perimeter and sparking new fires as its embers hurtled outward. Its containment remained fixed at 47 percent.

Most of the 7,000 additional acres were on the southeast corner of the fire near Painted Rocks, according to Gordon Warren of the U.S. Forest Service. The fire crossed over a small sliver of Colorado 67.

Teller County Sheriff Frank Fehn announced at a meeting Tuesday night that the fire had jumped the highway six or seven miles north of Woodland Park and a mile south of the Douglas-Teller county line.

Acreage now consumed by the Hayman Fire converts to about 203 square miles, greater than Denver and Boulder combined.

The Hayman blaze originated from a fire allegedly set intentionally June 8 in Pike National Forest northwest of Lake George by U.S. Forest Service technician Terry Lynn Barton, 38. Conditions creating the most extreme fire danger for Colorado in decades quickly converted it into a wildfire of unprecedented dimensions.

Attacking the fire Tuesday were 2,325 firefighters, 19 helicopters, 116 engines and 11 bulldozers, according to Dave Steinke of the Forest Service's regional office in Lakewood.

Poor visibility early in the day grounded slurry bombers for a few hours, Shreffler said, a decision also influenced by Monday's fatal air tanker crash in California.

Tuesday dawned as what experts call a "red-flag day," meaning it held the potential for devastating expansion.

Firefighters faced a lethal combination of single-digit humidity and winds blowing 10 to 15 mph but gusting to 35 mph. But the day held its small victories.

Fire lines built across Hayman's northern perimeter appeared to be holding, and officials considered it contained on the south and west, where mop-up operations were under way.

The fire is "testing us," Shreffler said.

On its east, firefighters' efforts were little match for the blaze's fury.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Bobby Kitchens said the fire's heat made a frontal assault from the east impossible -- an intensity created by the winds, the high temperatures and a relative humidity he put at about 4 percent.

"Until this trend changes -- and it's not expected to for a while -- we've just got a lot of hard firefighting to do," said Kitchens. "Each day makes the next day even worse."

A weak cold front, holding the potential for thunderstorms and keeping temperatures under 90, was expected to reach the area Thursday afternoon.

Kitchens said the fire's 7,000-acre gain, punching east by about four miles, brought it within seven miles of Woodland Park.

People living in Woodland Park started the day with the news that they remained on standby status for potential evacuation. At an afternoon briefing, from which media members were barred, hundreds of anxious residents were told they didn't have to leave -- yet.

The influence of the sprawling fire could be felt as far away as downtown Denver, 60 miles away, where joggers finished their morning runs with a cough and a smoky blanket of smog enveloped skyscrapers.

Smoke levels in Denver's air were termed unhealthy for the elderly, the young and people suffering heart or respiratory illnesses, health officials said. Residents were encouraged to limit prolonged outdoor activity until smoke eased later in the day.

Firefighters, too, were getting their own medical advisories.

Forest Service spokesperson Susan Zorrnek said bosses of hand crews were being advised Tuesday that they are nearing their limit for time spent on the firelines -- two weeks of consecutive 16-hour days.

Bosses of crews that were pushing that limit were being ordered to pull out for a mandatory week off, Zorrnek said.

The Missionary Ridge Fire, the second major blaze affecting the state, renewed its attack on two fronts Tuesday, pushing east at the flank closest to the fire's origin and surging west all the way up the side of Vallecito Reservoir by the afternoon.

Fifteen more evacuees left two subdivisions and a recreational vehicle park near the eastern boundary late Tuesday morning, joining the 2,466 who have been told it will be days before they can return to their homes.

"What this fire is like is a big eating machine, and all we can try to do is herd it," said Bill Paxton, spokesman for the fire command team.

The cost of fighting the Missionary Ridge Fire now stands at $6 million. A total of 846 firefighters are working the blaze, which has claimed eight homes, two mobile homes and five outbuildings.

The cooler front expected in the the state Thursday is not forecast to reach the Durango area.

"I don't want to be optimistic at all: This thing has fooled us today," George Custer, incident commander trainee for the multi-agency fire team, told a crowd of evacuees at Bayfield High School.

Officials expected the blaze's southeast protrusion, alongside Vallecito Reservoir, to push further north -- aided by stronger winds and airflow patterns -- into higher country. That would take it into the San Juan National Forest, away from homes.

But, Custer said, it will probably go around the eastern side of the reservoir also, taking it closer to homes.

At least 1,700 homes, including the resort town of Lake Vallecito, remained evacuated Tuesday.

In Bayfield, Jim Foster, spokesman for the Red Cross, said about 200 displaced residents spent Monday night at the emergency shelter in the high school gym.

Accommodations were tight in Durango and Bayfield because of 2,200 Ride the Rockies participants staying there Monday night, adding to the pressures on area motels also housing many of the firefighters.

News staff writers Holly Yettick, Gary Gerhardt, Michele Ames, Peggy Lowe, Owen S. Good, Jim Erickson and Michael BeDan contributed to this story.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_1217919,00.html