Northern Evacuees Return Home with Rain, New Fireline

Homeowners to the north of Lake City, including San Juan Springs and San Juan Hills, breathed a sigh of relief at 10 a.m. last Friday, August 14, when Elk Wildfire evacuation orders were relaxed, and they were allowed to return to their homes.
The week-long evacuation for occupiers of upwards of 41 homes in subdivisions to the north of Lake City began Friday, August 7, and continued until last Friday when Hinsdale County Sheriff Denim Starnes announced a fire readiness code reduction from red/ “go” to yellow/ “get set” in

county zones HNS-003A (San Juan Springs) and HNS-005 to the north of Lake City and west of State Highway 149 extending to the Hinsdale/Gunnison county line.
While zone HNS-002 to the immediate west of the 7,257-acre wildfire (a reduction as of mid-week due to revised mapping) remains in mandatory evacuation, Lake City and surrounding zones to the east of Highway 149 were similarly relaxed from yellow/ “get set” to green/readiness category.
In making last Friday’s announcement, Sheriff Starnes advised the relieved north Lake City homeowners to “remain engaged and alert.”
Easing of the evacuation orders and north Lake City residents’ return home is directly tied to wetter, cloudy weather and work on a two-mile fireline in Quadrant G north of Lake City — a 10’ to 14’-wide swath of burnable vegetation removal, roughly a mile, the result of a hotshot crew’s methodic handwork and one mile each to the north and south cleared in tandem by Forest Service and county road crew bulldozers. The new fireline extends from the immediate north of Lake City at the Crystal Lake/Larson Lake Trailhead at IOOF Cemetery and continues northward in circuitous fashion to just above Larson Lakes.
The line, according to Section Chief Chris O’Brien, provides an effective barrier for both Lake City and northern subdivisions.
Work on the new fireline was a tandem project with Forest Service personnel utilizing a D4 flat track caterpillar on the south end of the line closest to Lake City, while Hinsdale County Road & Bridge’s Tom Hamel and Zarick Waddington used the county’s D7 HiTrac dozer at the northern end closer to Larson Lakes.
Work on the new fireline was completed Tuesday, August 18 with hand crew work mid-week

continuing the line northward through steep terrain to connect with a rock slope devoid of vegetation and, equipment drop-off point 40 on Highway 149..
Scouts were out on Wednesday this week plotting a possible further extension of the fireline from Larson Lakes down toward the highway corridor.
In addition to hand and machine clearing, the new fireline takes advantage of natural topography and existing trails as a safety precaution to contain the slowly creeping wildfire which continues to smolder in excessively dry downed timber.
As a further fire deterrent and simultaneous with the Larson Lake fireline, a second fireline extension is being constructed by handcrews — with plans for completion later this week — to the northeast of the fire in consolidated Quadrant A (formerly Alpha and X-Ray) which will extend a mile east to the Highway 149 corridor in the vicinity of High Bridge Gulch. This northeastern fireline is adjacent to four hunting cabins which remain secure.
Detailed contingency plans are also in place by an initial attack group in the event the fire crosses Highway 149 to the east, Section Chief O’Brien stating “we’re ready to go at a moment’s notice.”
Low intensity fire is reported in unstaffed quadrants M and J to the immediate west and southwest of the fire
O’Brien is part of Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 2 which effective Saturday afternoon, August 22, is succeeded by Type 3 Wyoming Team 2.
With relatively static conditions, fire personnel as of Wednesday has dropped slightly, from 253 the first of the week to 223 personnel Thursday, the majority of whom are still headquartered at fire camp on the lower Lake Fork Whinnery Ranch.
The Elk Fire is not a complete burn, Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 2 reporting that even after burning, “patches of blackened stems interspersed with green trees remain in areas where the fire has burned through surface fuels beneath the canopy. Large-diameter logs are smoldering and retain heat which is reignited during windy, hot, or dry conditions… during particularly hot, dry, and windy periods, unburned fuels within the perimeter may ignite, producing smoke and visible flames.”
The fire team’s report this week repeats the need for patience in the face of what it terms “fire fatigue.”
“Firefighters are doing everything they can to establish containment as quickly as possible so that life can return to normalcy. Rocky Mountain Team 2 sincerely appreciates the continued patience and gracious hospitality of local residents. Unfortunately, it will likely be some time yet before the Elk Fire is declared ‘out’.”
Despite static conditions with the smoldering wildfire, handcrews are keeping a wary eye on Independence Gulch above Highway 149 where there is smoke, together with confirmation of hot spots from an unmanned aerial drone. The apparently downward creeping fire is indicative of a “stringer” in which normally upward moving fire gradually works downwards among tree and vegetation-clogged gulches.
Hinsdale Emergency Manager Phil Graham was queried by telephone on Tuesday afternoon as to the exact criteria which was used in relaxing evacuation orders last week and allowing north subdivision owners to return to their homes.
Graham credits Hinsdale Sheriff Starnes for making last Friday’s welcome announcement, the EM adding intense collaborative teamwork going into the decision by members of Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 2, Hinsdale County Commissioners, Emergency Manager Graham, and federal partners.
Graham emphasizes that the decision to allow homeowners to return to their homes was not made lightly and is based on a trio of factors including current status of the fire, present conditions on the ground, and the outlook for weather and associated fire conditions in the future.
“We take into account all resources which are available,” says Graham, including an indepth Forest Service computer application, FSPro, which combines predicted fire behavior in terms of long-term weather forecast and — given those factors —the percentage chance in which direction the fire will grow and analysis of how the fire will impact “values at risk” such as residential structures.
A portion of last week’s joint agency team meeting addressed the potential for risks to north residential neighborhoods and the Highway 149 corridor from mud and debris flows caused by moisture cascading off the higher elevation burn scars. “We assessed water and debris flow patterns and determined the chances for mud flow impacts are minimal.”
Mud flow impact is based on the fact the southern edge of the Elk Fire is three-quarters of a mile distant from the closest San Juan Springs structure, combined with the geographic fact that in the three-quarter-mile distance there are one or two sizeable drainages which would redirect any debris flow which might occur.