Weekend rains slow but don’t extinguish 416 fire north of Durango

Steady weekend rains in southwest Colorado kept the 416 fire from growing much, but the storm wasn’t enough to knock it out and officials worry a return spell of hot, dry weather this week will breathe new life in the 34,161acre wildfire.

“There hasn’t been a lot of growth since the rains came,” said Jamie Knight, spokeswoman for the Rocky Mountain Inci dent Management Team. “It was welcome but it wasn’t enough to be a doneandover event.”

Weather forecasters call for several days of hot and dry weather before another storm could drop rain on Thursday, Knight said Monday morning. Residents of surrounding communities including Durango will see a lot more smoke coming from the fire following the rain storm, she said.

There is still a tremendous amount of heat that’s trapped not only in standing and topped logs, but also beneath the surface of the ground where the heat follows tree roots, she said.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” said Megan Graham, spokeswoman for the La Plata County Sheriff’s Department.

The number of firefighters battling the blaze has swelled to 1,087 and they doubled the containment lines over the weekend to 30 percent, mostly on the eastern flank, Knight said.

Graham said firefighters are focusing much of their efforts on the southern flank of the fire as the wildfire approaches homes and businesses.

The wildfire started about 13 miles north of Durango on June 1. An official cause has not been released.

The storm wasn’t the deluge some meteorologist expected and so the rain didn’t trigger flash flooding or mud slides on the burned terrain, Graham said.

“We kind of dodged a bullet,” she said.