Crews fully contain 96-acre fire less than a day after it began
Mop-up crews fully contained the Green Mountain wildfire just after 4 p.m. Tuesday, nearly 23 hours after it started late Monday afternoon and was visible throughout much of the Denver metro area.
Hand crews spent Tuesday extinguishing hot spots where scrub oaks were burning, said Steve Aseltine, spokesman for West Metro Fire Protection. Most of the wildfire burned grassland, he said.
About 160 firefighters from a dozen agencies were able to achieve and hold 90 percent containment through Tuesday morning, according to a West Metro Fire Protection report.
Lakewood police, West Metro investigators and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents will together investigate the cause of the fire, Aseltine said. The cause and origin remain unknown.
Using mapping equipment, an airplane flyover determined that the wildfire covered an area of only 96 acres, not the 300 acres previously estimated, Aseltine said.
The wildfire, visible throughout the metro area, was reported around 5 p.m. Monday. Two hours later, the fast-moving wildfire forced evacuations from a neighborhood on the east side of Green Mountain.
Crews attached to 52 apparatus — engines, brush trucks and tenders — aggressively attacked the fire, according to Twitter reports by West Metro. By 8:30 p.m., they were at 90 percent containment. Evacuations were called off at 9:20 p.m.
Temperatures, which dipped to the low 20s overnight, helped firefighters maintain 90 percent containment through early Tuesday.
“This one — for all practical purposes — is in a metro area where thousands and tens of thousands of people can see it,” Lakewood police spokesman Steve Davis said Tuesday morning. “Resources were called very very quickly. It worked like it should. No houses or buildings were burned as far as I’ve heard, and no firefighters or citizens were hurt. I don’t know of any problems.” Davis said there were no reports of campers or people seen in the area where the fire erupted. There also was no reports of lightning.
The fire broke out on the large open space south of West Sixth Avenue and east of C-470. The area is grassy with patches of brush but few trees. The glow of flames atop Green Mountain was visible from downtown Denver and other parts of the metro area.
William Frederick Hayden Green Mountain Park, the area’s official name, is about 2,400 acres, according to the city of Lakewood.