One of the largest wildfires ever recorded in Colorado persisted Sunday as gusty winds and low humidity fueled the flames and officials stood ready to order additional evacuations in Garfield and Rio Blanco counties.
The Lee Fire exploded in size over the weekend and as of 6 p.m. Sunday, it was blazing across 106,672 acres or 167 square miles, making it the sixth-largest wildfire in the state’s history. The fire, south of Meeker, continued to push south toward Garfield County.
Crews had reached 6% containment on the fire on Saturday, according to Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 3. No new containment numbers were available as of 6 p.m. Sunday.
No injuries or structure damage have been reported by fire officials or the Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Office.
Officials in Rio Blanco and Garfield counties have ordered mandatory evacuations.
Mandatory evacuations were active along the Colorado 13 corridor from the White River near Meeker to south of Piceance Creek Road in Garfield County, parts of Rio Blanco County east of Willow Creek and south of Piceance Creek, and gulches west of Colorado 13.
Current evacuation maps from sheriff’s officials are available online.
The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office alerted residents in Zones 72 and 73 — both north of downtown Rifle — to prepare for a possible evacuation order.
The Colorado Department of Corrections decided to evacuate nearly 180 incarcerated people from the Rifle Correctional Center “in an abundance of caution” Saturday night. The agency relocated the people to the Buena Vista Correctional Complex, according to a press release from the agency.
More than 1,000 people were working to respond to the fires Sunday, with the primary objective of keeping the fire west of Colorado 13 and north of County Road 5.
“Under current conditions, this will prove to be a challenge to the firefighters,” fire officials said in the morning.
With winds coming from the north and northwest, the area around Rifle and Interstate 70 were expected to see smoke from the fire, which was caused by lightning. Rifle elected to close the Rifle Mountain Park “due to poor air quality in the area” at 1:30 p.m., according to a social media post from the city.
The nearby Elk Fire, which was considerably smaller than the Lee Fire as of Sunday evening, was at 9% containment. It stretched across 14,635 acres, or 23 square miles, east of the Lee fire and Colorado 13.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued air quality warnings, in effect until 9 a.m. Monday, that are related to the fires in 10 counties, including Gilpin, Clear Creek, Lake, Rio Blanco, Eagle, Summit, Garfield, Pitkin, Gunnison and Grand counties. The agency advised people in those areas to limit outdoor activity when moderate to heavy smoke is present, especially anyone with heart disease, respiratory illnesses, children and older adults.
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