MONTROSE - Federal officials threw a massive air assault at a wildfire near Crawford on Friday in an effort to protect nearby homes.
Three large P-3 Orion air tankers and four smaller, single-engine air tankers dropped approximately 80,000 gallons of retardant on the Saddle Mountain Fire, which has burned more than 400 acres. Three helicopters with water buckets also fought the fire.
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No structures have burned in the Saddle Mountain Fire, Hall said late Saturday morning. He didn't know if any structures were threatened at the time. Authorities have not required any residents to evacuate their homes, and nobody has been injured due to the blaze. The fire was 10 percent contained as of Friday night.
The Delta County Sheriff's Office is investigating the cause of the fire, which ignited on private land and spread onto BLM property and the Gunnison National Forest.
Flames are pushing through oak brush, pinyon/juniper stands, Douglas fir trees and aspens in rugged terrain about five miles east of Crawford.
Two 20-person crews of hot shots - elite firefighters - plus another 20-person hand crew fought the Saddle Mountain Fire early Saturday, said Pam Wilson, a fire information officer with Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team A, the group assigned to contain the wildfire. About 100 personnel, including the three 20-person crews and three fire-engine crews, were working on the blaze Saturday.
One large helicopter dropped water on the fire Saturday, Wilson said. Federal officials used the seven airplanes and three helicopters Friday for an initial attack to slow the fire down then pulled nearly all of the aircraft off so they could be prepared to respond to other wildfires.
Firefighters planned to dig lines around the fire part of the day Saturday to contain the blaze, especially in areas where the fire might burn down off the mountain and threaten homes, Hall said.
The Rocky Mountain team expected to pull firefighters off the blaze Saturday afternoon due to potentially hazardous weather conditions, Wilson said.
"The weather forecast shows the lightning activity level to be at four (on a scale of one to five), which is pretty darn high," she said. "We're concerned about the exposure with having our firefighters at that elevation."
Potential rain, which could help crews by slowing down the blaze, also could create dangerous conditions, Wilson said.
"On the west side of the fire it's a steep, talus slope and the footing is hazardous at best when it's dry," she said. "We're very concerned if there's any precipitation what the footing would be like for those crews."
Wilson described the Saddle Mountain Fire behavior as "pretty quiet" before noon Saturday.
"I would say it is kind of smoking and smoldering," she said. "The air tankers and the helicopters that worked yesterday did an outstanding job of cooling this fire down."
Contact Russell Smyth via e-mail at
russells@montrosepress.com.
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