Forest fires dot several Western states
Despite threat, Colorado town welcomes tourists to summer beer festival
DENVER — The historic mountain town near Breckenridge Ski Resort welcomed visitors who help drive its economy despite a nearby wildfire Friday that forced residents to be ready to flee in case it blows up.
No houses have burned in the small blaze that is one of several in Colorado and around the West.
Despite the threat near Breckenridge, which is dotted with 19th century Victorian buildings, hundreds of people were expected at an annual summer beer festival Saturday. But ticketholders were warned that the main highway may be periodically closed by firefighters attacking the blaze that evacuated nearly 500 homes outside town, many of them pricey ski properties.
People can still take gondola rides to the ski resort for mountain views and play at its summer fun park, but a handful of hiking and biking trails, including a 13-mile segment of the popular 486-mile Colorado Trail, were closed.
Hikers and bikers on the Colorado Trail that runs from outside Denver to Durango can detour around the closure by taking a paved bike trail or hopping on a free bus connecting ski resort communities, said Bill Manning, executive director of the Colorado Trail Foundation.
People were worried when the fire first broke out and spread rapidly Wednesday, sending a huge plume of smoke into the air, said Balazs Jarai, general manager of the Bivouac Bivvi Hostel in Breckenridge. But he said the mood in town Friday was “pretty relaxed.”
A popular bicycle ride that takes riders over three mountain passes near Breckenridge was canceled because of smoke and a neighboring blaze to avoid taxing police who direct traffic along the route.
The fire has scorched less than a quarter of a square mile and is about 1½ miles from the closest evacuated home. It initially spread dramatically but has not grown in the following days thanks to cooler, cloudier weather.
Investigators do not know what sparked the blaze that’s one of several in the western United States.
In Arizona, firefighters planned to set fires Friday to prevent a nearly 40-square-mile wildfire in the mountains overlooking Tucson from reaching an evacuated summer-retreat community.