Home Care In Denver, CO

More than half a dozen wildfires continued to burn across Colorado Monday morning, but firefighters have been able to get control over several of the blazes as hot and dry conditions — especially in western and southern portions of the state — pose risks for new fires to start.

The newest wildfire — the Oak fire — sparked on Sunday afternoon in Pagosa Springs and resulted in mandatory evacuations in parts of the city. As of Monday morning, it had burned 75 acres.

The Oak fire has prompted mandatory evacuations in the Elk Park subdivision, including Elk Park, according to the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office. Pre-evacuation orders were also issued for other areas around the city.

Gov. Jared Polis on Sunday night declared a disaster emergency and authorized the National Guard to assist as needed. The fire did not grow overnight into Monday, authorities said, but there was no containment on the fire yet.

On Monday, the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office reported that a small barn, a pump house, a pergola, a carport and a camper trailer have sustained “significant fire damage.” No homes have burned so far, authorities said.

The state’s largest wildfire, the Lee fire, burning near Meeker in Rio Blanco County and headed toward Rifle in Garfield County, grew to 113,378 acres with 7% containment Sunday. It is now Colorado’s fifth-largest wildfire on record.

The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday alerted residents in areas north of downtown Rifle to prepare for a possible evacuation order. That came a day after the Colorado Department of Corrections evacuated nearly 180 incarcerated people from the Rifle Correctional Center to the Buena Vista Correctional Complex “in an abundance of caution” Saturday night.

The Elk fire, east of the Lee fire, was measured at 14,635 acres with 30% containment Sunday night.

The weather, coupled with drought conditions, continued to create challenges for firefighters on the southern end of the Lee fire over the weekend, according to an update from the Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Office. Supported by air resources that dropped retardant on the flames, firefighters strengthened lines around State Highway 13 and County Road 5.

There was good news Monday. The sheriff’s office announced that three “zones” within the fire footprint had been downgraded in terms of the need to evacuate. Still, authorities urged residents in the area to “stay vigilant and remember that conditions can change quickly.”

Crews continue to arrive from around the country to help battling both fires, with crews “working day, swing and night shifts on both fires,” the sheriff’s office posted online.

A public meeting providing the latest updates on the lightning-sparked Lee fire will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at the Colorado Mountain College Rifle campus at 3695 Airport Road in Rifle.

In the state’s southwest corner, firefighters were responding to the 2,500-acre Stoner Mesa fire near Rico. The San Juan Team 8 worked the fire along the Colorado 145 corridor on Sunday. There was no immediate information about evacuation orders.

Firefighters managed to increase containment of the 30-acre Windy Gap fire near Granby, which was sparked by lightning last week, to 90% on Sunday. The Grand County Sheriff’s Office said it would pull crews off the fire over the next 24 to 48 hours.

Crews appeared to be getting the upper hand on both the Twelve and Thirteen fires in Moffat County, with the Twelve fire at nearly 4,300 acres and containment at 80%. The 45-acre Thirteen fire near Craig was declared “under control” — and 100% contained — Sunday with all evacuation and pre-evacuation orders lifted.

The Thirteen blaze started with a structure fire in the 700 block of East 13th Street on Sunday. Four structures were eventually lost — a residence, garage and shed on the property where the fire initially ignited and another garage or shed near East 12th and Pine streets.

An estimated 55 residences were under significant threat during the incident. Two Craig Fire & Rescue firefighters were transported to Memorial Regional Health for evaluation due to smoke inhalation and heat-related fatigue. Both were released after treatment.

The Delta County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday said its dispatch center was being “inundated” with 911 calls about smoke in the county. Authorities said there were no confirmed reports of any new fires in the county but that lots of smoke from the Lee fire to the north was settling over the Grand Mesa, and up through Hotchkiss and Paonia.

“Please do not call to report the smoke and instead only call 911 or dispatch if you have visual confirmation on active flames of a new wildfire!” the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook late Sunday night.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on Monday issued an air quality health advisory because of the smoke from wildfires in the past week. An advisory for Rio Blanco, Garfield, Eagle, Pitkin and Gunnison counties was issued to begin at 9 a.m. Monday and last until 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Cities in the warning area include Meeker, Glenwood Springs, Eagle, Vail, Aspen and Gunnison. Health authorities are advising people to stay indoors and limit outdoor activity if the smoke becomes thick. People with heart disease and respiratory illness are at particular risk.

Five wildfires burning on Colorado’s Western Slope have spread to more than 32,000 acres, spurred by hot, dry and windy weather and forcing ongoing evacuations, fire officials said Wednesday.

A rapidly growing wildfire west of Craig closed U.S. 40 in both directions Wednesday afternoon, state transportation officials said.

The fire — called the Twelve fire on the Bureau of Land Management’s fire dashboard — burned across 1,000 acres over the course of five hours Wednesday after sparking in Moffat County near Elk Springs, about 50 miles west of Craig, according to federal officials.

Witnesses reported the fire at 3 p.m., and the cause is unknown.

U.S. 40 is closed between Blue Mountain and Lowell Street in Maybell.

The Twelve fire sparked northwest of twin wildfires burning around Meeker in Rio Blanco County. Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday added the Lee fire to a weekend disaster declaration for the nearby Elk fire.

There is also a disaster declaration for the Leroux fire burning near Hotchkiss in Delta County, which activates state emergency and firefighting resources to help with the wildfires.

Lightning sparked three of the fires during the weekend, and the flames rapidly grew in the Western Slope’s dry vegetation, exacerbated by windy, hot and dry weather, officials said.

The swath of fires is sending smoke across Colorado and caused air-quality health alerts for most of the Western Slope and parts of the Front Range and Eastern Plains, according to the National Weather Service.

Dangerous fire conditions, including record-breaking heat on the Front Range and red flag warnings in western Colorado, prompted severe weather alerts across the state.

Multiple Colorado and federal recreation areas were closed Wednesday, including Oak Ridge, Rio Blanco, Colorow Mountain and Piceance state wildlife areas and parts of the White River National Forest and San Juan National Forest.

A wildfire burning near Meeker in Rio Blanco County has scorched more than 22,000 acres, fire officials said Wednesday morning.

The Lee fire, which has since absorbed the Grease fire that also started nearby, was last mapped at 22,497 acres, fire officials said.

It's nearly the size of the Turner Gulch fire, which is currently Colorado's largest wildfire at 22,860 acres. That wildfire has been burning since early July in Mesa County.

Meeker is about 70 miles northwest of Glenwood Springs and 40 miles north of Interstate 70.

Afternoon winds fueled the fire, pushing the flames up to Colorado 13, fire officials said in a Wednesday morning update. The fire has not crossed the highway.

Firefighters are working to protect homes and other buildings on the east side of the fire, including along Colorado 13, according to the update. Crews on the fire's western and southern edges are focused on securing fire lines and containing the flames.

Incident managers are "evaluating the direction and rates of fire spread" to determine if additional evacuations need to be issued.

As of Wednesday morning, the evacuation area was bordered to the east by Colorado 13 and the Grand Hogback, the north by Colorado 64, the west by Rio Blanco County Road 5 and the south by Bald Knob Mountain, Fourteenmile Creek and County Road 22, according to the evacuation map.

Multiple areas north and east of the current evacuation zones are on pre-evacuation status, according to the map.

A second wildfire burning just miles away from the Lee fire, on the other side of Meeker, had consumed more than 8,300 acres as of Wednesday, according to fire officials.

The lightning-sparked Elk fire is burning on 8,304 acres with no containment, fire officials said Wednesday morning. It has destroyed at least two homes and one outbuilding since it started Saturday afternoon.

More than 230 fire personnel are battling the Elk and Lee fires as of Wednesday morning, including seven aircraft, nine fire engines and seven hand crews, fire officials said.

Hot and dry conditions continue to fuel the fires on either side of Meeker, with red flag warnings scheduled from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

The alert warns of low humidity between 8% and 13%, gusty winds up to 35 mph, and more.

"Fires will catch and spread quickly," forecasters stated in the warning.

Fire officials said the weather is "conducive to large fire growth, with all key factors for extreme fire behavior."

The area's steep slopes, wind-exposed mesa and flammable vegetation also "promote rapid fire spread," officials said. Several months of above-average temperatures, below-average precipitation and ongoing drought leading up to the fire have "severely stressed the ecosystem."

The evacuation zone is bordered to the south by White River, the west by the Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway, the north by County Road 14 and the east by Big Lick Reservoir, according to Rio Blanco County's emergency map. Multiple other areas remain under pre-evacuation orders.

Evacuations were lifted Wednesday for the Leroux fire, which is burning just over a mile east of Redlands Mesa in Delta County with no containment.

The 179-acre fire had "reduced fire behavior" Tuesday compared with Monday, but crews have not reported any containment, Delta County emergency officials said Wednesday.

Smoke was reported near Oak Mesa outside of Hotchkiss, which is about 20 miles east of Delta, about 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Evacuation orders were first issued early Monday morning as the fire began to rapidly grow, officials said.

The previously evacuated area included 3100 Road north of Oak Mesa Road, the 7X Ranch, residents along 3100 Road between the Leroux Creek bridge and the U.S. Forest Service Boundary and campers between Forest Service Road 128 and Bailey Reservoir.

That area is now on pre-evacuation orders. Residents can return home, but 3100 Road remains closed to the public.

Part of the San Juan National Forest was evacuated Tuesday when a wildfire sparked amid the trees.

The Stoner Mesa fire is burning on 500 acres with no containment about 20 miles northeast of Dolores, a town in Montezuma County about 45 miles northwest of Durango. The fire itself is in Dolores County, sheriff's officials said.

The fire is burning in a "remote, extremely difficult-to-access area" of the national forest and is growing to the east, fire officials said in an update.

Dolores County officials issued evacuation orders for part of the San Juan National Forest on Stoner and Taylor Mesa. Evacuations include:

As of Tuesday evening, the wildfire was "still actively burning and demonstrating extreme fire behavior," U.S. Forest Service officials said.

The cause of the fire is unknown.

An aerial video posted by the Forest Service shows a large column of smoke emerging from an area of dense trees. Flames are visible on the forest floor.

A wildfire burning south of Meeker on Colorado’s Western Slope exploded in size Friday and Saturday, racing across 40 square miles and forcing mandatory evacuations as fire crews worked to contain it.

The Lee fire is burning along the southeastern edge as red flag conditions — high wind, low humidity, hot weather — continued Saturday, fire officials said.

Fire activity on Saturday afternoon was not as intense as Friday’s, but the situation is evolving, fire spokesperson Bethany Urban said. No injuries or structure damage have been reported by fire officials or the Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Office.

Rio Blanco and Garfield county officials issued new mandatory evacuation orders as flames raced south toward Garfield County and the fire grew by nearly 30,000 acres.

Colorado Department of Corrections officials on Saturday also started evacuating the Rifle Correctional Center because of the fire. The prison houses 192 inmates about 10 miles north of Rifle in Garfield County.

Mandatory evacuations were active along the Colorado 13 corridor from the White River near Meeker to south of Piceance Creek Road in Garfield County, Rio Blanco County Road 5 to County Road 3, Willow Creek, and gulches west of Colorado 13.

Critical weather conditions aligned to create “extreme fire behavior,” operations planning chief Tyler Nathe said Friday.

The fire had charred 88,755 acres, or 139 square miles, as of Saturday morning, up from 61,425 acres, or 96 square miles, on Friday, fire officials said. It is now the sixth-largest wildfire ever recorded in Colorado and is burning with no containment. There are 1,245 firefighters and other workers responding to the Lee fire and nearby Elk fire.

The Lee fire began creating its own weather Friday afternoon as flames roared south into drainages filled with dry fuels, and the wildfire sent a pyrocumulus cloud 30,000 feet into the air that stirred up even more wind and made fire behavior worse, Nathe said.

Federal fire maps show the Lee fire's footprint extending south, crossing Fourteen Creek Road and Rio Blanco County Road 5.

Crews are focused on protecting structures and infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines southwest of the fire, officials said Saturday afternoon.

Smoke from the Lee fire created enough shade over the Elk fire, 11 miles to the east, that firefighters could reinforce fire lines and gain 8% containment. Fire crews held the smaller wildfire to 14,502 acres as of Saturday.

Colorado faces a prolonged heat wave with temperatures nearing 100 degrees, prompting a Weather Impact Alert for Thursday.

DENVER — Colorado continues to be impacted by a long-lasting heat wave with temperatures near 100 degrees.

The 9NEWS Weather Impact Team has issued a Weather Impact Alert for Thursday due to the heat, partially because of highs near 100 in Denver, but also because of overnight lows that'll struggle to drop below 70 degrees.

A Heat Advisory is up for most of the Front Range for Thursday between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., with highs near 100 degrees in Denver.

Fire danger remains high Thursday in the mountains with intervals of moderate to dense smoke across northern Colorado, with gusty winds possible. Wildfire smoke will hamper visibility at times, especially in the high country.

There are several fires in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona supplying the hazy and smoky conditions overhead. Smoke-related air quality will be worst in northern and western Colorado, closer to the source of the smoke.

In Denver and along the Front Range, most of the smoke is coming from the Lee and Elk fires that are burning near Meeker in northwest Colorado.

Denver's high temperature reached 97 degrees on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Relief from the heat won't come until the weekend as a trough of low pressure sweeps across the area. That could drop high temperatures below 90 degrees and bring at least some isolated storm chances Saturday and Sunday in the Denver metro.

Denver forecast

Denver's Community Planning and Development Department has issued "cease and desist" orders to a property owner in the southwest Denver Overland neighborhood who had been using Airbnb to rent out trailers and RVs parked on his rental properties to homeless residents.

Kevin Dickson, 69, owns or co-owns 17 properties in Overland, according to city records, and said he put trailers and RVs on 10 of his properties and had been renting them out to homeless men and women.

"I was trying to solve a bigger problem of affordable housing," Dickson told CBS News Colorado.

"It was an experiment," he said. "Sure enough, I was helping the homeless."

Dickson said he was renting the units out for about $700 per month "to the people who can't afford rent. There's a lot of homeless people who have income but can't afford rent."

But city authorities were alerted in July to Dickson's Airbnb ads and began investigating. Denver's Department of Excise and Licenses hit Dickson with six notices of zoning violations, saying that his trailers did not have rental licenses. The Community Planning and Development Department followed up by issuing Dickson three "cease and desist" orders, saying that mobile homes, recreational vehicles, and trailers cannot be used as accessory dwelling units.

The orders told Dickson to "immediately stop all rentals and short term rentals of an RV, mobile home or trailer on the property. Scrub/remove all Airbnb and other short term or long term rental sites (...) It is unlawful to use a RV, mobile home or trailer as an ADU."

Craig Arfsten has been an advocate for the Overland neighborhood and said he heard complaints about homeless residents living in Dickson's trailers from several residents. He said he knew immediately that zoning laws do not allow property owners to have RVs for rent on their properties.

"All of a sudden, you have a neighborhood that has no rules or sense of order," said Arfsten. He said residents were upset because "You don't know who these people (renting the trailers) are, you don't know what these individuals bring to the neighborhood."

Besides, said Arfsten, Overland already has La Paz, one of the city's micro-communities, housing some 60 people who are homeless.

Dickson said he is removing the trailers and ending what he calls an "experiment. I am a law-abiding citizen, so we're getting rid of everything," he said.

He had been renting one of his trailers to Josh Quinn, who describes himself as homeless. Quinn, 33, said he works minimum wage jobs, including working for Dickson, but still can't afford a standard rental unit.

"There's no affordable housing out here," said Quinn, who said he is from Florida.

He said he had been paying Dickson about $600 per month for the last year to live in one of Dickson's trailers. "It's impossible to find anything under $1,000. I can't afford anything out here." He said living in one of Dickson's trailers in the Overland neighborhood "is the only thing that kept me from being homeless in this past year. It sucks that it's all closing down."

The City of Denver has been grappling with a shortage of affordable housing for years. The newly approved Vibrant Denver Bond package contains $89 million for a family health clinic, a children's advocacy center, and affordable housing.

Brian Maass

Your Investigator Brian Maass has a reputation for breaking major stories. He is a veteran reporter who has established a high level of trust and credibility in the community. Share you story ideas with him by sending an email to [email protected].