West Fork Complex fire flares into mushroom cloud, increases acreage
Updated: 07/04/2013 03:25:39 PM MDT
The Denver Post
The West Fork Complex fire, following a "mushroom cloud" eruption, has now burned 106,637 acres,according to fire fighting officials.
"It got started about noon or so," said Bobby Kitchens, the spokesman for the Type 1 Incident Management Team. "It started building up and it really built a big mushroom cloud up into the night and really added about 11,000 acres."
The fire remains about 16 percent contained and no structures had been destroyed, Kitchens said.
Beetle-killed spruce on the south end of the Papoose fire fueled the flare, which brought the West Fork Complex, composed of the Papoose, West Fork and Windy Pass fires.
The fire burned through a sulfur pit mine, but luckily, Kitchens said, no one was
"If sulfur catches on fire the fumes can be really dangerous," Kitchens said. "We didn't have anybody there so that's not really a problem for us."
Firefighters were able to defend some structures flanking the flare-up, Kitchens said, which is a main objective in fighting this fire in such steep, rugged terrain.
"We always report percent containment and that's always a thing that everybody hangs their hat on, but in this case this is not our goal," he said. "Our goal is to protect life and property, and we've been pretty successful in that."
Kitchens said some communities around the fire, such as Spar City on the east end of the Papoose fire and some areas around Humphrey's Lake near the West Fork fire, remain evacuated.
People from the town of South Fork was able to return to their homes Friday after being evacuated.
Kitchens said even once the flames die down and folks return home, smoke will be visible and the threat will continue.
"It's not over," he said.
Only four other fires burn in the state, all of which reportedly have at least 95 percent containment.
__._,_.___
No comments:
Post a Comment