In Colorado and most of the U.S., emergency managers use the “Ready. Set. Go!” framework to help communicate evacuation orders. The “Set” stage coincides with pre-evacuation orders, where officials put neighborhoods on standby for possible evacuation. The “Go!” stage usually coin...
Fourth of July in Colorado’s Western Slope is expected to remain mostly dry, hot and smoky, with a high risk of wildfires persisting through the next few days. The National Weather Service issued an air quality alert on Thursday, July 2, for northwestern and northcentral count...
Wildfire season has already made its presence known across the Colorado River and Roaring Fork valleys. The Paradise Creek Fire in West Glenwood, the Dry Creek Fire in Rifle and other recent starts have offered a troubling preview of what could lie ahead if hot, dry and windy ...
The risk of wildfires is high across Colorado, and officials say residents and visitors need to be ready for the possibility that evacuation orders could be issued at a moment’s notice. The American Red Cross recommends every household have an emergency supply kit ready long b...
Update: As of 9:10 p.m., Highway 82 has reopened in both directions on Independence Pass. An accident has closed Independence Pass from the winter closure gate to Lincoln Creek in both directions on Highway 82. As of 7:47 p.m., the expected length of the closure is unknown,...
Holy Cross Energy (HCE) is committed to safely providing reliable electric power services to our more than 46,500 cooperative members throughout the Eagle, Roaring Fork, and Colorado River valleys. This commitment extends to taking all the steps we can to reduce the risk of wildf...
Wildfires fueled by hot, windy weather and extremely dry conditions have ravaged more than 125,000 acres across Colorado’s mountains in the past week, according to federal wildfire officials. There are more than 1,700 personnel battling five major wildfires across the state. C...
Daisy Weeks fled to safety after her father refused to evacuate his Beulah home, spending hours believing he was dead. Then a sheriff's deputy found him walking down a dark road with his cat...
The Vail-area women’s hockey community is reeling from the loss of wildland firefighter Emily Barker, an Eagle resident who played defense for the Downvalley Divas, one of several Eagle County women’s teams. The Vail area is home to one of the country’s most robust women’s hoc...
More than 300 firefighters are battling the 50,187-acre Aspen Acres fire, the state’s largest active fire, which remained 0% contained. Officials warn more growth is inevitable....
The Vail-area women’s hockey community is reeling from the loss of wildland firefighter Emily Barker, an Eagle resident who played defense for the Downvalley Divas, one of several Eagle County women’s teams. The Vail area is home to one of the country’s most robust women’s hoc...
Motorists should expect heavy traffic and delays on eastbound Colorado Highway 82 and Interstate 70 near Glenwood Springs due to a gasoline spill, according to an alert from the city of Glenwood Springs. The lane closure is in place on eastbound Highway 82, headed upvalley, fr...
Personal fireworks, including sparklers, are not allowed to be part of the Fourth of July festivities in most Colorado mountain communities this year due to the widespread drought and extreme fire danger. Wildfires are burning across the West, including six major wildfires in ...
Update, 5:36 p.m.: A semi has been cleared from Colorado Highway 82 following a large diesel fuel spill in Glenwood Springs, and the intersection at 10th Street has reopened, according to a Facebook post from the Glenwood Springs Police Department. The eastbound and southbound...
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect the visiting birds of prey will no longer be able to attend due to evacuation from a wildfire. Aspen Center for Environmental Studies is bringing back its Raptor Fair at Hallam Lake on Friday, July 3, showcasing program r...
One of the busiest travel periods of the year is underway on Colorado’s Interstate 70 corridor as tens of thousands of drivers head to the mountains to celebrate the Fourth of July. With so many people hitting the roads for the holiday, transportation officials are urging trav...
The Willow Fire, which started June 28 outside Leadville, has grown to 2,011 acres, and a higher-level incident management team has taken command of the response, according to updates posted by the management team and the Lake County Office of Emergency Management. Southwest A...
The Aspen Acres fire is roughly 2 miles from Bishop Castle, a popular roadside attraction in Custer County, and 7 miles from the unincorporated community of Wetmore...
PJ Breslin — One week into fire season and the West is ablaze. Our mostly volunteer firefighting forces are hard at work.
Vail Police Sgt. Rebecca Anderson was decisively leading 5th Judicial District chief district attorney’s investigator Jason Boston after the final round of preliminary, unofficial election results was recorded Tuesday at 11:48 p.m. The two Democrats were vying for their party’s ...
As of Tuesday, Emergency Response and Epidemiology Program Administrator for Pitkin County Carlyn Porter has sent a total of six bats to Denver to get tested for rabies, with five negative, one pending and one more bat reported and awaiting capture. Of those, the five that te...
What is Snowmass Village’s evacuation plan if a wildfire were to threaten the town? There’s a complicated answer, according to Chief of Snowmass Village Police Brian Olson. Snowmass is fully surrounded by forests and shrubland, and much of that vegetation is moderately to ...
Between eight and 10 aircraft dropped water and retardant on the flames when conditions allowed crews to fly, but winds are expected to pick up Tuesday afternoon, officials say...
Lake County wildfireSmoke from the Willow Fire west of Leadville is seen from the Aspen Meadows campus on Sunday evening. As of press time on Monday, the fire was still burning, about two miles northwest of the Leadville Fish Hatchery…...
Eagle River Fire Chief Mick Woodworth is no stranger to an uptick in personal firework activity surrounding Independence Day. From smaller sparklers and firework cones to giant bottle rockets, he’s seen it all. However, this year, while he hopes not to see any firework activity, ...
Mountain Rescue Aspen successfully rescued a subject experiencing a medical emergency roughly five miles up the West Maroon Pass trail, at approximately 11,200 feet, Sunday afternoon. Mountain Rescue Aspen was notified at about 2:04 p.m., according to a press release, and disp...
Wildfires fueled by high winds and historic drought conditions raged across Colorado and the West this weekend — burning thousands of acres, forcing evacuations and resulting in the deaths of three firefighters. Firefighters on Friday achieved full containment on the Dry Creek...
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Colorado Parks and Wildlife has issued an emergency closure for all public access and downstream recreation on the Colorado River from James M. Robb-Colorado River State Park in Fruita to the Utah state line. Working with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Offi...
Fourth of July celebrations are heating up for Colorado mountain resort towns — figuratively and physically As more counties face increasing wildfire risk and respond with stricter fire restrictions, many are looking to firework alternatives to celebrate the country’s 250th an...
The U.S. Department of the Interior on Monday released the names of three firefighters who died Saturday while responding to the Knowles Fire in western Colorado, including two assigned to the Rifle Helitack crew. The firefighters were engaged in initial attack operations on t...
Collbran resident Christina Vander Berg had a 25-year career investigating fires and built a life as a Western Slope cattle producer and rodeo judge. Over the past two years, she’s stepped into a new role that draws on her passions and experience: serving as a range rider amid Co...
The Rifle Police Department will increase enforcement of bicycle, e-bike, e-moto and scooter violations in the coming weeks after officers observed a growing number of unsafe riding behaviors throughout the community. Police said officers have become increasingly concerned abo...
The City of Rifle is canceling fireworks for its July 3 Celebration after consulting with the Colorado River Fire Rescue due to extreme fire danger, the city announced in a press release on Thursday. Rifle is under Stage 2 fire restrictions along with the rest of Garfield Cou...
MESA COUNTY, Colo. — Federal wildland fire officials released the identities of three firefighters who died while responding to the Knowles Fire in western Colorado on Saturday. The firefighters were assigned to the Rifle Helitack crew and were engaged in initial attack operat...
The Aspen Acres fire was the latest wildfire to ignite across southern Colorado and the Western Slope amid extremely dry conditions, strong winds and extreme heat...
BEAVER, Utah — Three firefighters were killed and two sustained burn injuries when they were overcome by flames from fast-moving wildfires in hot, windy conditions near the Colorado-Utah border. The firefighters deployed emergency shelters for themselves during the so-called b...
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect new growth of the Willow Fire. A wildfire that grew to more than 1,000 acres in a matter of hours near Leadville in the evening Sunday, June 28, sent smoke rolling into Summit County and led emergency officials to ask resid...
A “significant wildfire column” from the Willow Fire that has broken out west/northwest of Leadville in Lake County was visible from Pitkin County as of 5:48 p.m., according to a Pitkin Alert. The fire grew to more than 1,000 acres in a matter of hours Sunday evening. Evacuati...
You’ve had this moment. The hygienist finishes your cleaning, glances at her notes and says it almost as an afterthought: “Just a little bleeding back here. Nothing to worry about.” You nod. You forget about it before you’ve left your parking spot. That sentence may be the mos...
Andy Fisher, deputy chief of Aspen Fire Protection District, presented to the Aspen/Pitkin County Housing Authority board on Wednesday, June 17, about wildfire hardening procedures for APCHA-owned building complexes, urging hardening against ember showers and vegetation removal a...
The smoke that blanketed Colorado mountain skies for much of the week has dissipated, but officials are warning that high winds this weekend will increase the wildfire danger amid widespread drought. The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings across the Western...
Aspen’s recently adopted wildfire resilience code is slightly increasing the costs of new developments and some renovations that include square footage expansion, according to contractors and architects. Bonnie Muhigirwa, Aspen’s chief building official, noted that while the c...
Avon Town Manager Eric Heil on Friday made the decision to cancel Avon’s fireworks display for the Salute to the USA event. “This decision is based on the designation of Stage 2 Fire Restrictions by the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office and the lack of any rain in the forecast o...
The High Point? Well, as of this writing, it is that, thus far in this very dry June, there has yet to be a fire of severe consequence in the Roaring Fork Valley. I use the word “severe” because, although we have had fires, they have been stymied by the outstanding work of our...
The size of the fire that started Tuesday south of Rifle did not grow and remains around 315 acres as of Thursday morning
Stage 2 fire restrictions will go into effect across Eagle County on Friday, banning campfires, personal fireworks and other spark-producing activities. The notice prompted the town of Vail to cancel its regularly scheduled Independence Day fireworks event, citing conditions a...
On June 25, Eagle County flipped the switch of the new geothermal heating and cooling system that lies just below the Eagle County building in Eagle. The new $14 million system, which replaced the building’s dying boiler, will aid Eagle County’s greenhouse gas reduction goal of 5...
A haze from out-of-state wildfires is choking the Colorado mountains as widespread drought and persistent hot, dry weather continue to elevate the fire danger. The smoke wafting across the Western Slope is primarily from three major wildfires burning out of control in Utah and...
Stage 2 fire restrictions will take effect across Garfield County and the White River National Forest at 1 a.m. on Friday, June 26, as hot, dry and windy conditions continue to increase fire danger across the region, according to press releases from both the county and the forest...
Stage 2 fire restrictions begin Friday; fire weather watch in effect Saturday
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued an air quality health advisory today for Aspen, the Roaring Fork Valley and many Western Slope counties due to smoke from out-of-state wildfires....
Update, 9 a.m. Wednesday: The Dry Creek Fire south of Rifle has grown to an estimated 315 acres as of Wednesday morning, according to an update from Colorado River Fire Rescue on Facebook. Management of the fire transitioned at 7 a.m. Wednesday to the Upper Colorado River Inte...
All lands managed by the White River National Forest will be under Stage 2 Fire Restrictions beginning Friday, June 26, the agency announced Wednesday. Under Stage 2 restrictions, campfires and charcoal are prohibited everywhere on the White River National Forest, including in...
The Dry Creek fire was estimated at 315 acres as of Wednesday morning after starting Tuesday in Garfield County
New space in Glenwood Springs welcoming customers
Bonfire Coffee Founder Charlie Chacos, right, stands with head roaster Clay Gailey in front of equipment at their new roasting facility in Glenwood Springs on June 11....
A woman holds a bag of Bonfire Coffee in the new Glenwood Springs store on June 11.
Crews are responding to a structure fire and wildfire south of Rifle on Gage Road, where additional structures and gas wells are threatened, according to Colorado River Fire Rescue. Evacuations are in progress for Gage Road and are moving into the Grass Mesa area, according to...
Update, 5:15 p.m. Tuesday: The Dry Creek Fire south of Rifle on Gage Road is estimated at 189 acres, Colorado River Fire Rescue spokesperson Maria Nechkash said Tuesday evening. Evacuations are in progress for Gage Road and part of the Grass Mesa area, Nechkash said. No struct...
Update, 5:15 p.m. Tuesday: The Dry Creek Fire south of Rifle on Gage Road is estimated at 288 acres, Colorado River Fire Rescue spokesperson Maria Nechkash said Tuesday evening. Evacuations are in progress for Gage Road and part of the Grass Mesa area, Nechkash said. No struct...
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