Larimer County Emergency Information Update
Not a great deal to report right now folks and that is good news. There are a few things you need to be aware of however. The first item relates to some burning out activities which may put up some smoke tomorrow:
Fort Collins, CO –Firefighters are planning a burnout Saturday morning April 9 ahead of potentially changing weather. The burnout will encompass approximately 20-25 acres and is at the north end of the fire; south of Deerpath Road and Larimer County Road 44H, west of County Road 27. The operation will produce a significant amount of smoke in the area and residents should not call 911 unless they are sure of a new fire.
Firefighters are busy today working on preparation for the burnout performing tasks such as placing a control line where they want to stop the fire.
A burn out operation is a fire suppression tactic utilized to remove unburned fuel (grasses, leaves, needles, brush, etc.) located between an advancing fire and an established constructed fire line or natural barrier. Weather conditions, slope, the amount of accumulated fuels, time of day, resource availability, and firefighter safety are all considered prior to initiating a burn out operation. The intent of a burn out operation is for the fire to slowly move from the established control line toward the advancing main fire to effectively remove the unburned fuel. This tactic widens the established control line, reduces the potential fire intensity and can make containment and control more successful for firefighters.
Evacuations –None.
Safety – Please limit all unnecessary traffic in the fire area. If you do need to travel in the area please use caution.
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The second issue relates to people being in the area for sight seeing, 4 wheeling or other reasons and who have no property in the area. Now is not the time to clog the roads which will have emergency vehicle traffic. Let the residents who have lost their possesions go about their grim business without an audience and please take the following to heart:
Contact: Larimer County Sheriff’s Office
John Schulz, Public Information Officer
Public Information Office – 970-980-2501
Subject: Public Asked to Stay Away from Crystal Fire
Date: 4/8/2011
The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office is requesting the public to stay away from the Crystal Fire burn area. With the exception of Buckhorn Road and Stove Prairie Road, many of the roads in that area are private roads and people who do not live in the area will be cited for trespassing.
There is a large amount of firefighter movement on the roads in the fire area and there is still a large number of heavy emergency vehicles traveling the roads. Having any additional traffic can hamper the firefighting effort.
While the static roadblocks have been taken down we are requesting that any unnecessary travel in the area be limited. Recreationists, four-wheelers and spectators are strongly discouraged.
Larimer County Sheriff’s Office deputies remain on patrol in the area and will be checking vehicles that are not displaying a resident placard. Trespassers will be cited.
And one last thing…the lecture: just having a burn ban or restrictions in place is no silver bullet. We all still need to be aware of the very dry conditions and do our part to act responsibly and be extremely careful with fire. As this is being written a wildfire in Evergreen down south is causing evacuations of mountain properties from yet another ignition. We’ll hope it goes nowhere fast but the point is we could have another bad situation here very easily. Instead, lets not. Let’s be safe and stay safe. Thus ends the lecture. We’ll give you a Crystal Fire update later when we receive new information from Incident Command.
For complete information on this emergency, see
http://www.larimer.org/emergency/emergency_detail.cfm?nam_id=73