A wildfire in Poudre Canyon grew to 1,000 acres Wednesday afternoon, reaching the Gateway Park. Warm, dry weather was expected to continue Thursday as firefighters worked to get it contained.

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Air Crews, Hand Crews Work To Slow Picnic Rock Fire

Firefighters were told that warm dry weather and gusty winds will fuel the fire even more as they ordered several slurry drops throughout the day to help contain or control the blaze. Gusts to 33 mph and 78-degree temperatures were recorded Wednesday.

The official start of the fire season is still a month away.

Eight homes have been evacuated, and people in 12 others were placed on alert and are being closely monitored.

Many are heeding the evacuation warning, saying they spent most of the night watching the fire anxiously.

"We have about 100 animals in the barn so we called several of our breeders to come out tonight with their trailer," said evacuee Denise Haines Tuesday night. "It was really bad earlier. It looked a lot worse. It looked like lava coming down the hill, so it was pretty scary."

"It was truly a kind of beautiful, scary sight as it hit each of the cedar trees it just exploded," said evacuee Charlie Snyder.

Ranchers are also using farm bulldozers to dig fire lines around the property.

The situation is exacerbated by what authorities call "flash fuels" -- dry brush and grass that could ignite an entire hillside in just a few minutes.

County Road 29C is closed and Highway 14 from Highway 287 to Stove Prairie Road is also closed to non-residents.

Eloise Campanella, with the Larimer County Sheriff's Office, said a firefighting truck is parked on the driveways of almost all the homes, watching the fires and preparing to protect the homes.

"The first priority is firefighter safety and the second priority will be structure protection," Campanella said. "Last night, at about 11 o'clock, we had a very erratic wind shift and that is what the problem was. The wind then shifted down the ridge towards the residences. This was something we were not expecting, of course. We got very little help last night from the humidity. We do expect that at night a fire will lay down, and we would get some help there, but we got virtually no help last night from the weather."

She also said Thursday's weather conditions were expected to be the same as Wednesday.

Larimer County has ordered two air tankers from northern Wyoming and North Carolina to drop slurry throughout the day, and two helicopters from Fort Collins and Boulder were also making bucket drops. A Type II management team with four 20person hand crews are also on order, Campanella said.

She said resources are coming from all over because technically, local authorities aren't prepared for such an early fire season. The fire cost is already put in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"The resources are not even in place yet. And that's the problem. This is so early for fire season. That's one thing. They started the briefing this morning asking the firefighters, 'What month is this?' You would think this would be July or August, not March," she said.

About 40 firefighters with five agencies -- Larimer County Emergency Services, Poudre Fire Authority, Boulder Wildland Fire Team, U.S. Forest Service, Wellington and Loveland Fire Departments -- are at the scene.

The fire, located about 2.5 miles from Ted's Place, had remained relatively small early Tuesday afternoon, but blew up as the afternoon progressed.

It is believed that the fire was started by embers from burning trash. The man who may have started it in his yard said he has now learned a lesson about doing such a chore on a windy day.

"This was the last pile we were burning when the wind came up and took it right through. By the time the winds stopped, the ashes were all the way over there. It's just scary because it could have just gone over to those houses on the other side," said rancher Anthony Sanchez. "If there's anybody out there listening, just don't burn. Even if it's a little burn and you think you got it under control, you never get it under control."

The blaze was 5 percent contained Wednesday afternoon, largely due to the Poudre River on one side. It is not known when the fire will be fully contained or controlled.

At a briefing Wednesday, firefighters were reminded that conditions are unpredictable and that at anytime erratic winds could shift and the fire could change direction so they were encouraged to look out for the person next to them.

Unseasonably warm, dry weather has left trees and grass tinder-dry across much of Colorado. Firefighters across the state are preparing for a long summer.