WARD, Colo. (KDVR) — The town of Ward has been evacuated due to a new wildfire that sparked Sunday afternoon.
UPDATE (Oct. 23, 11:20 a.m.): With the fire fully contained, crews are working on mop up and patrol. The plan is to continue patrolling the containment lines and monitoring for places where they can be improved.
All evacuation orders for the Lefthand Fire and CalWood Fire have been lifted.
UPDATE (Oct. 23, 12:19 a.m.): Officials report the fire is 100% contained. It remains burning 460 acres. Firefighters will be assigned to patrol the fire in the coming days.
UPDATE (Oct. 22, 8:32 p.m.): Crews were successful today mopping up and securing lines on the uncontained portion of the fire’s edge. The fire is burning 460 acres. Here is the latest evacuation map:
UPDATE (Oct. 23, 9:15 a.m.): The Lefthand Fire is now at 43% containment, according to the incident management team.
Firefighters were able to secure the southern edge of the fire on Wednesday and no new growth was reported after mid-day.
A drop in temperatures and increase in humidity is expected to help temper fire activity on Thursday.
UPDATE (Oct. 21,9:12 a.m.): Crews were able to get containment lines connected around the full perimeter of the Lefthand Canyon Fire Tuesday. This means they containment percentage should grow steadily as crews mop up hot spots.
On the ground, crews will spend today and the remainder of the week securing the lines and monitoring to make sure they will hold.
UPDATE (Oct. 20,7:40 p.m.): The fire has grown to 470 acres, according to officials’ latest estimate. It is 4% contained.
UPDATE (Oct. 20, 10:45 a.m.): Crews made progress on the Lefthand Canyon Fire Monday constructing fireline along lines of retardant put into place on Sunday. Helicopters dropped water to cool heat from interior hot spots while crews monitored for spot fires.
Lefthand Canyon firefighters will continue building and improving containment lines today. Crews will also work to minimize fire spread and patrol for spot fires as winds increase over the fire area today.
Aircraft will again be used to support ground operations.
UPDATE (Oct. 18, 6:52 p.m.): In an update from Boulder County Division Chief Mike Wagner, aircraft was diverted to hit the Lefthand Canyon Fire after cloud cover prevented air support to the Cal-Wood Fire.
Wagner said the fire is contained north of Lefthand Canyon, but no containment percentage was reported to him.
UPDATE (Oct. 18, 4:38 p.m.): Officials have estimated the Lefthand Canyon fire is burning 242 acres. The latest map from the Boulder OEM is below showing the Cal-Wood Fire and evacuations for both fires.
The Boulder Office of Emergency Management issued a warning and evacuation order for the fire just after 1 p.m.
The fire is occurring in the 14000 block of Lefthand Canyon Drive.
Boulder OEM said the fire is about five acres and about 145 homes are under the evacuation order.
This is the second fire in Boulder County this weekend. Several hundred first responders are working on containing and extinguishing the Cal-Wood Fire in the Jamestown area.