Firefighters continue to battle several wildfires raging on the Western Slope. The Turner Gulch fire nearly doubled in size overnight to about 14,000 acres with zero percent containment.
The fire continues to spread in Unaweep Canyon and evacuations are in place along Highway 141.
Jesse McCarty with Rocky Mountain Incident Management said 27 residences had been evacuated so far, and 80 structures had been prepped to reduce fire risk.
He said he would “not be surprised to see the fire grow,” adding that officials “expect it to remain on the landscape for some period of time.”
A community meeting about the fire and the nearby, smaller Wright Draw Fire will be held tonight at 6 p.m. at the Gateway Community Center and will be livestreamed on Facebook, according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.
McCarty compared the Turner Gulch Fire to the Pine Gulch Fire in 2020, which burned for nearly two months in Mesa and Garfield counties. It covered over 139,000 acres before it was fully contained.
Nearly 500 firefighting personnel are on the scene, while officials expect hot, dry and windy conditions to fuel the fire. The primary goal is to keep the fire on the south side of Highway 141, but McCarty said more gusty winds will make that challenging.
Gov. Jared Polis told CPR News on Wednesday that he was confident in the state’s response to multiple wildfires so far.
“We have more aerial resources than ever before — two Type 2 helicopters. We have an exclusive use contract and large air tankers,” said Polis. “So we have very thoughtfully, over the last four years of my tenure as governor, upped our preparedness as a state on fire.”
The response has cost $1.8 million so far, according to the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center, which helps coordinate wildland fire resources across the West.
Air quality alerts are in place for much of western Colorado, while the Air Pollution Control Division reports that smoke is moving further north and east, along the Colorado River Valley. The air quality health advisory for wildfire smoke has been extended through 9 a.m. Thursday.
South Rim fire
The South Rim fire at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park remains uncontained, but growth has slowed slightly. It’s currently 4,160 acres. It was sparked by lightning last week.
Around 420 personnel are on the scene, with five aircraft working to contain it. Bulldozer crews are still working to prevent the fire from reaching into the Bostwick Park community and spreading past its perimeter, according to a video update from Tyler Nathe, an operations section chief with the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team.
Nathe said that crews will not be deployed into the steep canyons to battle the fire, and that a plan is in place if the fire jumps the canyon and onto the North Rim.
Sowbelly fire
Southwest of Grand Junction, the Sowbelly Fire is now 16% contained as of Wednesday. It has burned 2,274 acres. Nearly $4 million has been spent on the response so far, with around 69 people working on site.
According to BLM Colorado, firefighters are putting out hotspots, but gusty winds are continuing to make suppression challenging. Crews are focusing on limiting the fire’s spread into the Escalante Canyon and holding the fire north of an access road that runs on BLM land.
