Weather muddles fight
As Chaffee County residents return home after evacuations, incoming cold front poses risks to crews battling Decker fire
SALIDA» It’s been 31 days since lightning sparked the Decker fire south of Salida. Its growth has slowed in recent days, officials say, but it is bigger than ever — 6,667 acres burned as of Wednesday morning, with about 14% of it contained, according to an update. The fire has destroyed two structures.
For some Chaffee County residents, Wednesday brought a welcome development that the fire’s continued growth could not cloud: They got to go home and stay there.
Shortly before 10 a.m., a handful of people who live at the base of Methodist Mountain gathered at a checkpoint to await the OK to drive up county roads to their homes. Sheriff John Spezze announced Tuesday that evacuation orders for their area would be lifted.
As they waited, they described a frightening — if expected — situation a week prior. The evacuation call came shortly after 2 a.m. Oct. 2. By that time, Frank Comstock was already looking out
his window.
“I told my wife, ‘Take a look at this mountain. It’s on fire,’ ” Comstock said. “I said, ‘Better get up.’ Then they called us.”
Marshall and Andrea Carlstrom had their essential belongings ready to go when that call came.
As the county’s director of public health, Andrea Carlstrom puts a lot of emphasis on preparedness.
“I can’t stress enough the importance of a go-kit,” she said.
More than reliving the stresses of the last week, Wednesday morning was about gratitude for those returning home.
They thanked the fire crews, the sheriff’s office, the local Methodist church and aid organizations including the American Red Cross. They lauded local businesses such as the Fun Street Family Arcade that provided space for a public meeting. Most of all, they praised their neighbors who gave them places to stay in their hour of need.
“The Red Cross lady said it’s the first fire they’ve worked where they had more space than people,” Marshall Carlstrom said. “Everybody had homes. It’s a special community.”
During the evacuation, the sheriff’s office did allow people to visit their homes for short periods.
That was key for Comstock. When he left last week, he didn’t think he had time to hook up his trailer, so he left without it. He went later to retrieve what became his short-term home. He went back another time to disconnect his hoses, shut off the water and turn up the heat. With snow in the forecast for Thursday morning, he didn’t want his pipes to freeze and burst.
“If I hadn’t gotten up there and had gotten frozen out, we would have been in big trouble,” he said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service was calling for an overnight low of 36 degrees in Salida, with snow showers likely between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Thursday. Accumulation is expected to be minimal.
A red-flag fire warning went into effect in the afternoon, but Wednesday morning’s warmth and relatively tame winds created a window of opportunity for the more than 875 people fighting the fire. Ahead of the incoming low-pressure system, some crews were able to cross fire lines and use tools and rakes to create more of a buffer between actively burning areas and established boundaries, said Penny Bertram, a public information officer at incident command.
“They are making hay while the sun shines today,” Bertram said.
The cold and snow in the forecast pose a safety risk to crews on the ground, Bertram said, mentioning frostbite and exposure. At the incident command center at the Chaffee County Fairgrounds, some tents were moved inside.
Incident meteorologist Aviva Braun launched a weather balloon Wednesday afternoon to get a better idea about the instability in the atmosphere. With a new front coming in, she said there was a chance that isolated thunderstorms might form. Those storms could bring lightning and dangerous microburst winds that could put firefighters in danger.
Braun was not optimistic about what the incoming system would do to help fight the Decker fire.
“I was just looking at satellite imagery, and it looks the front is evaporating as it moves in,” she said shortly before launching her balloon. “With the amount of moisture we are going to get on the fire, it’s just going to be a hindrance to the operation. It’s just going to make things slippery without putting any real, wetting moisture on the fire.”