Fire Hazard in Southern Colorado closing parks

[PKI]

Warning! Fire hazard is impacting Colorado Parks and forest land. Mesa Verde is taking precautions and shifting to their incident action plan. Issues for Durango as well. If you are heading to Southern Colorado, be aware of changing conditions and the fire hazard.

Call to verify status and Travel Safe. Pat

[OTRA15]

Thanks Pat. Here some links for everyone’s information.

http://www.coemergency.com/p/fire-bans-danger.html
https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dfp...d-restrictions
https://csfs.colostate.edu/wildfire-...-restrictions/
http://www.campoutcolorado.com/color...ions-and-bans/
https://www.denverpost.com/news/colo...ado-wildfires/

Stay safe!

[DaveP]

We were at Mesa Verde last week when it started. It has gone from a small fire to a big deal since it started. Fortunately, we had avoided Rt 550 or we may have had to turn around.

Thoughts and prayers with the affected residents and first responders!

[SSquared]

And the Durango & Silverton railroad is shutdown until further notice.

[Aerowood]

Fire bomber base is right next door to use, it's been quite busy. We are currently outfitting the Herc to measure the the outflow plumes from forest fires. Supposed to start doing the research out of Boise next month.

[RickyNelson]

Thoughts and prayers to everyone involved! Kudos to the fire fighters and responders. In Durango there has not been a structure lost (knock on wood) and we had a new fire start up in Silverthorne yesterday. Rain is in the forecast for this weekend, thank goodness.

Make sure and keep your safety chains from dragging to prevent sparks!

[DougHart352]

The San Juan National Forest is in a stage three closure. No access for any reason. This will last until July 31 unless conditions abate.

Silverton is open for business and they need your tourist dollars more than ever!

[PKI]

Thanks for the info and updates on hazard status. Hope that rain rolls in. Pat

[TxTravelsUSA]

I just left Mesa Verde NP yesterday afternoon. There were two large smoke plumes and a couple smaller ones with smoke in all directions from Mesa Verde. There was significant amount of smoke all the way past Great Sand Dunes NP and by this morning smoke was east of I-25 and Pueblo.

[mojo]

The entire western U.S. is dry as a tinder box and summer has just begun. Fires are springing up all over. Many of the forests and campgrounds are being closed. Please don't plan on having campfires if you're heading west of the Mississippi River! They have even banned smoking outside.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/

[dbj216]

Wildfires are nasty things. All it takes is a cigarette butt flipped out the window and bang, big fire. If you smoke, keep your butts in the car. Lightning strikes, power line failure, campfire (not in Colorado thank you), or even a hot exhaust system parked on dry grass can cause a fire.

The 416 wildfire is now approaching 25,000 acres. The weather forecast for tomorrow is hot and windy. Not good.

There is some welcome rain forecast for the weekend that may help a little bit.

David

[centennialman]

I was camping about 8 miles from the Durango fire this past week/weekend. The smoke got really heavy in our area on Sunday. By Sunday evening, there were ashes and very small bits of black wood raining down on us. We lost electricity in our campground during the night. Came home on Monday and they closed down the forest area campgrounds shortly after we left.

[Airhead59]

Santa Fe NF closed a couple of weeks ago due to drought conditions and fire danger. Cibola NF (Sandia Mountain, Mt. Taylor, etc.) is closing tomorrow morning for the same reason. Several NM State Parks have closed. Conditions are dire. However, there is a possibility of rain this weekend. But it will take some good soaking rains, unlikely until late July/August.