Denver-area wildfire turns deadly as California’s Park Fire torches an area larger than Los Angeles
Colorado’s Stone Canyon Fire turns deadly: The remains of a fire victim were found Wednesday inside a home in the path of the Stone Canyon Fire – one of three wildfires ravaging the Denver area, Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson said Wednesday.
The Stone Canyon Fire has scorched more than 1,500 acres and Gov. Jared Polis said five homes have been destroyed. As firefighting efforts continue, evacuation orders for parts of the town of Lyon were lifted. But some gas service in those neighborhoods was turned off as a precautionary measure, the sheriff said. “Getting people back in with utilities will take some time,” he said. As of Wednesday evening, the fire was 20% contained, according to Boulder’s disaster management office.
Colorado’s Quarry Fire spreads rapidly: Emergency crews raced to evacuate homes southwest of Denver overnight as the Quarry Fire, previously known as the Wildland Fire, threatened several subdivisions, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said. By Wednesday night, the blaze had grown from 50 acres to 341 acres, the sheriff’s office posted on X, and was still 0% contained.
Polis has deployed the state National Guard to assist in the fire response, he announced in a Wednesday news conference. It marks the first fire-related deployment since 2021’s Marshall Fire, the governor said, which destroyed hundreds of homes.
Polis emphasized the National Guard will not be firefighting, but will be “able to take additional support positions, road closures (and) logistics to free up other first responders who directly respond to the fires.”
Firefighters struggle with limited resources and “a rattlesnake problem”: The Quarry Fire will be tough to fight due to the terrain and the number of other wildfires searing parts of Colorado, local officials said. “We don’t know if we’re going to get any air support today or not,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Mark Techmeyer said Wednesday.
While no injuries nor damaged structures have been reported from the Quarry Fire, firefighters face new hazards with the blaze. The terrain is mountainous, steep and “really hard to navigate on foot,” Techmeyer said. On top of that, “We have a rattlesnake problem to deal with.”
In addition to the Quarry and Stone Canyon fires, Colorado is also grappling with the Alexander Mountain Fire, which has singed more than 7,600 acres north of Denver and was 1% contained as of Wednesday night. Hot, dry and windy weather is expected over the area through Friday and there’s a slight chance of scattered rain over the weekend.
• California’s Park Fire is bigger than the size of Los Angeles: The weeklong inferno, which started July 24 in Northern California, is now the fifth-largest wildfire in state history. It has swallowed more than 391,000 acres, or 611 square miles, according to Cal Fire.