Wildfire in Rocky Mountain National Park leaves 2 dead
Colorado’s East Troublesome Fire, the second-largest fire in state history, roared amid high winds Saturday through timber stands and rugged terrain in Rocky Mountain National Park, threatening the community of Estes Park to the east. The fire has killed two, with the confirmation that an elderly couple were killed while trying to ride out the blaze at their home near Grand Lake.
The fate of Estes Park is now a race between fire and ice, as a snowstorm due to hit Saturday night was to last into Sunday and is likely to halt the fire’s spread. In anticipation of continued fire growth before then, however, eastern areas of Estes Park have been added to mandatory evacuation orders — the western side of town had been evacuated Thursday — and firefighters were taking steps to defend the town.
Some reports show the fire may have moved significantly closer to Estes Park overnight — perhaps as close as 1 mile, with firefighters calling in more resources Saturday. In a morning video briefing Saturday, Paul Delmerico, operations section chief on the fire, said the fire was “just west” of the Bear Lake area in Estes Park.
The high winds are preventing fire suppression aircraft from flying, and firefighters are using satellite imagery to locate the blaze. He cited “Very dynamic extreme conditions that we’re working with” as a reason for concern.
“We’ve got a heck of a day ahead of us,” Delmerico said. “We’re going to do everything we can with our folks to try to deflect the fire from Estes Park.”
Winds in Estes Park on Saturday morning were gusting to about 50 mph out of the west, with temperatures that are expected to climb into the 60s with extremely low relative humidity. Even stronger winds were in the vicinity of the fire at higher altitudes.
Red flag warnings are in effect for the Rockies as low humidity combines with high winds to create “critical” fire weather, the second-most severe category on the fire risk scale. The Cameron Peak blaze, located just a few miles from the East Troublesome fire and the state’s largest on record, is also expanding Saturday, satellite heat detections show. There is even a possibility the two fires could merge before the cold front settles the blazes Saturday night.
At higher elevations where the fire is especially active, snowfall amounts later this weekend are forecast to exceed a foot, which will lead to the odd juxtaposition of a flame-filled surface and snow-covered trees and ground areas.
“Imagine a foot of snow over those hot fires!” wrote the National Weather Service in Denver in a forecast discussion posted Saturday morning. By Monday, temperatures in the fire area are expected to be in the single digits to below zero Fahrenheit, though it’s not clear if this will be enough to completely extinguish the blaze.
The dual threats from fire and snow point to the rarity of high altitude blazes at this time of year in Colorado, when winter typically settles in. No fire on record in Colorado that has started this late in the season has become nearly as large, putting the blaze in uncharted territory and showing all the signs of climate change.
The fire has been so severe it jumped the continental divide, a span of 2 miles that contains mainly rocky terrain. The fire grew an astonishing 140,000 acres in size between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.