The Horse Park Fire between Dove Creek and Norwood is 90 percent contained and is expected to be fully contained by June 9, according to the Bureau of Land Management.
The fire started May 26 with a lightning strike and quickly grew to 1,221 acres by May 29, but it has not grown since, according to a BLM report on Inciweb.com. It is burning in San Miguel County northeast of the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, but it never crossed wild herd’s boundary.
Last week, a larger Type 2 firefighting crew fought the blaze with 272 personnel. Planes and helicopters dropped retardant and water to stop the fire’s spread. It burned in piñon-juniper forests on Bureau of Land Management and private lands in a remote area of Disappointment Valley. As of June 4, the total personnel working on the fire was 245, according to the Inciweb report.
Some of the Type 2 crew left the fire over the weekend. A smaller fire crew remains to reinforce the last 10 percent of the containment perimeter on the fire’s eastern side, according to the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office. Pre-evacuation orders have been lifted for residents in the Sandy’s Fort Pass and North Mountain areas. No structures were damaged and no injuries were reported.
There has been no evidence of spotting from the fire, and currently there is minimal fire activity, fire officials report. However, they warned that undetected spot fires have the potential to burn aggressively. A May 28 video on the San Miguel County sheriff’s Facebook page show the fire’s aftermath.
Lightning triggered three tree fires Sunday afternoon in Montezuma and Dolores Counties, local fire officials report.
About 1 p.m. Sunday, a tree caught fire in the 13,000 block of County Road G in McElmo Canyon. Crews from the Cortez Fire Protection District responded and extinguished the fire, said Shawn Bittle, assistant fire chief of the Cortez Fire Protection District.
About the same time, lightning ignited a tree fire west of the intersection of County Roads X and 14, and also on Road R in Dolores County. Both were extinguished, said Pleasant View Fire Chief Jeff Yoder.