South Fork fire

South Fork fire, The West Fork Complex fire exploded Friday and put the town of South Fork in Rio Grande County under mandatory evacuation orders.

South Fork has about 400 residents. In all, 1,500 people are under evacuation orders.
The pictures from the complex, which is actually two fires, show how big and intense it has grown. Smoke spread across a wide area of Colorado from the two wildfires. Incident commanders estimated the size at 40,000 acres late Friday night.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) authorized the use of federal funds Friday night to help with firefighting costs for the West Fork Complex in Mineral and Rio Grande Counties.

While growth of the fire was huge Friday, the fire’s behavior Friday was more calm than Thursday. “It just wasn’t the fire behavior that we saw yesterday… only moved a few miles closer to South Fork, the town, so much different… we don’t want to alarm people unnecessarily.”
The West Fork Complex consists of two fires, West Fork and Windy Pass.
Firefighters faced impossible conditions as hot, dry weather continued in the region, which was under a Red Flag Warning.

The fire behavior we saw yesterday (Thursday) was so extreme, it was undocumented and unprecedented,” said Fire Behavior Analyst Eric Norton.

The West Fork Complex was initially burning on the west side of Wolf Creek Pass. But it crossed over the Continental Divide burning in a northeasterly direction,  and headed down the east side of Wolf Creek Pass above Big Meadows Reservoir down to Metroz Lake.

In some locations, the fire is only half a mile from Highway 160, which is closed in the area.
The second, much smaller Windy Pass Fire grew by about 300 acres to 1,000 acres Thursday, and firefighters have been able to hold the fire within the established containment lines.
Residents in the town of South Fork were under mandatory evacuation, and Highway 149 was closed between Creede and South Fork.

The area from the top of Wolf Creek Pass to the outer city limits of South Fork is also under mandatory evacuation.
Del Norte High School located at 1055 9th Street has been opened as the fire evacuation center.
“Both fires are burning in steep, rugged terrain with large amounts of beetle-killed spruce which makes it difficult and unsafe for firefighters to mount a direct attack. The fires were combined into a complex on Sunday, June 16,” incident commanders say.

Lightning started the West Fork Fire on June 5. It is the much larger of the two fires
Lightning also started the Windy Pass Fire. That happened June 13. It is south of Wolf Creek Ski Area and east of Treasure Falls. It moved to within one-quarter mile of at least one structure at the Wolf Creek Ski Area.
Highway 160 remains closed from South Fork to Pagosa Springs. Drivers are encouraged to take U.S. 285 South from Alamosa.

South Fork fire 2013-06-22T03:12:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: My Videos Tube