Out Of Control: Bailey Forced To Evacuate

BAILEY, Colo. -- An intensely volatile wildfire burning out of control in Colorado's high country surged this afternoon, forcing 2,000 people living in the town of Bailey to evacuate.

SNAKING FIRE STATS Acres Burned: 2,590 Homes Threatened: 500 Homes Lost: 0 Outbuildings Burned: 2 Firefighters: 600+ Containment: 75 percent Cause Of Fire: Man-Made Cost: $1.4 Million

Highway 285 between Pine Junction and Shawnee has been shut down.

"This fire just started blowing up ... and has started cresting the ridge and inching its way towards Highway 285. It is currently half a mile from the west side of Bailey, where a couple of buildings are in the line of fire," said reporter Ronda Scholting, who is at the scene. "This fire is out of control and getting bigger."

Burland Ranchettes, Parkview, Horseshoe Park, and Glen Isle subdivisions, as well as the Town Center, are on mandatory evacuations.

SNAKING FIRE SLIDESHOW: Getting It Under Control Role Of Air Tankers In Fire Fight SLIDESHOW: Snaking Fire: Day 2 SLIDESHOW: Day 1 RESOURCES Fire Information, Phone Numbers Health Risks From Fire Insurance Tips For Evacuees Perimeter Of Fire U.S. Forest Service: Snaking Fire Pinecam.com Local Info Fire Bans Call the Park County Sheriff's hotline at (719) 836-4121 or 4122 or 4123 for evacuation info

More than 1,000 homes are threatened and about 4,400 people have been evacuated so far.

As of 3:30 p.m, 2,000 acres have been burned and firefighters said that they have worked hard to get it to 10 percent containment.

The fire was 10 percent contained last night but heavy winds pushed it beyond the fire lines and it was at zero percent containment Wednesday morning.

The fire has not jumped Highway 285, as reported earlier, but a hot spot was seen on the southern side of the highway, moving from the north to the side south of 285, near the heavily populated Burland subdivision. It was extinguished.

High winds are picking up and hampering firefighters' efforts to contain or even control the blaze, which is burning in Park County on the Pike and San Isabel National Forests and private land.

Firefighters said that the scene report that the fire is "very active."

Winds gusting at 30 mph are causing erratic fire behavior in the brushy fuels on the west side of this wildfire.

Three air tankers are dropping retardant and three helicopters are dropping water, and will continue to do so as the conditions remain safe.

The Red Cross set up a shelter for the evacuees at Elk Creek Elementary near Shaffers Crossing Tuesday night, but that shelter moved to Conifer High School to accomodate the thousands of people being evacuated, 7NEWS reported.

Camp Santa Maria, located between Shawnee and Grant, has also been established as a shelter.

Four subdivisions were on mandatory evacuations Tuesday night: Ravenswood, Friendship Ranch, Bailey Estates and Hill & Dale. Residents living in Crow Gulch and Crow Valley were advised to leave their homes, but were not forced to, 7NEWS reported.

The Horseshoe Park subdivision was the last area evacuated late Tuesday night.

No structures have burned so far but flames are hundreds of feet from many structures, according to fire officials.

The weather won't be helping the effort today, according to 7NEWS meteorologist Richard Ortner. Wind gusts of up to 50 mile-per-hour are forecast for the area in the afternoon.

All Platte Canyon schools -- Platte Canyon High, Fitzsimmons Middle School, and Deer Creek Elementary School -- were closed Wednesday because of the fire. Those schools will also be closed Thursday because of the continuing threat, school officials said.

Barring a change in the fire pattern, all Jefferson County schools will be open Thursday, including Elk Creek Elementary, and Conifer High School, which is the site for the Red Cross Shelter.

About 200 firefighters, three slurry bombers and three helicopters are working on the fire.

A federal "Level 1" team of high-experienced firefighters, known as "hot-shots," from South Dakota was also expected Wednesday to help tackle the volatile blaze.

The governor toured the fire site and repeated his earlier message: Colorado is in for a tough fire season.

He said that the humidy was only at 3 percent and the forecast did not look good for the rest of the week.

He asked Coloradoans to do what they can to build a defensible space around their homes and to conserve water where they can.

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Tuesday: Fire Breaks Out

Efforts to battle the growing fire from the air were not successful Tuesday afternoon, due to high winds. Only helicopters managed to get in and drop buckets of water.

Local firefighters were assigned to protect homes in neighborhoods threatened by the fire. Firefighters went through neighborhoods downwind of the fire Tuesday afternoon and told people in about 400 homes to leave immediately, 7NEWS reported.

Some residents told 7NEWS that they had just a couple of minutes to grab their pets and a few precious items before they were forced by firefighters to leave their property.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a "Fire Management Assistance Declaration" Tuesday evening, which frees up federal funds to help fight the fire. Gov. Bill Owens requested the help.

The fire grew from a single acre to 50 acres in just two hours. It started around noon on the mountainside behind Platte Canyon High School, about four miles west of Bailey, near the community of Shawnee.

It was not immediately known how the fire started.

High winds grounded two air tankers that were prepared to drop slurry early on in the fire. A helicopter with a water bucket did what it could to fight the fire. Three air tankers and three helicopters were ordered for Wednesday morning before the wind picked up.

The blaze was being fed by dry fuel -- mostly a mixture of grass, mountain brush and Ponderosa pine -- and heavy winds.

It was burning on both private property and Forest Service land and moving northeast, 7NEWS reported.

Other Fires Still Smoldering

This latest fire is about 8 miles from the Topaz Mountain Fire which has burned about 350 acres in the Pike National Forest.

The Hewlett Gulch fire in Larimer County is still smoldering. It started last Thursday and has charred about 600 acres.

Gov. Bill Owens said Tuesday that Colorado faces the worst fire season in more than a century.

According to officials, the fire season has essentially started two months early this year.

Colorado has already seen 283 fires this season, compared to the year 2000, when the state had only 54 fires up to this point. That had been known as the worst fire season in recent memory because 7.3 million acres burned that season, 7NEWS reported.