As of Sunday evening, the Spring Creek Fire five miles southwest of Parachute has been 20% contained. Officials say the footprint is 203 acres—approximately the same as its footprint Saturday night.
The Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire Management Unit and the Grand Valley Fire Protection are the lead agencies responding to the fire. Crews from Debeque Fire Protection District, Colorado River Fire Rescue, Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District, Lower Valley Fire Department, Garfield County Sheriff’s provided assistance with the initial response to the fire.
A brush fire was called into the GVFPD at around 2 p.m. on Saturday. Responding firefighters say the wind carried embers which sparked in various parts of the pinyon-juniper and grassy terrain.
Hugh Fairfield-Smith is UCR Fire’s operations section chief. He provided a video update on operations Sunday night.
“Overall, we did point protection for critical values at risk, like oil and gas infrastructure, solar infrastructure, and of course, the homes in the area,” he said. “You may see aviation in the area as we’re continuing to work some of the spots that happened last night, and areas of heat as we continue to work on containment around this fire.”
The cause of the fire is still unknown and is under investigation.
Smoke from the fire did create some hazy air quality conditions in the Roaring Fork Valley on Sunday morning. Officials say large amounts of winter moisture have led to lots of springtime growth on the landscape, which could dry out and make for quick-burning fuels when fire danger is high.
Officials responded to another fire in Garfield County on Sunday, in the Hubbard Mesa area near Rifle. As of Sunday night, UCR Fire says the blaze has been contained to eight acres, with ground crews and aircraft assisting.
The cause of that fire is under investigation as well.
Western Garfield County is under a red flag warning by the National Weather Service until Tuesday night, which means there's still a strong chance of fire danger in the area. Residents should expect low humidity, dry vegetation, and gusty winds. Wind gusts could be up to 40 miles per hour on Monday, and up to 50 miles per hour on Tuesday. No open burning is permitted during a red flag warning.
