{"id":133715,"date":"2026-06-17T12:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/structure-on-fire-near-montezuma-county-road-n\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T16:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:40:18","slug":"structure-on-fire-near-montezuma-county-road-n","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/structure-on-fire-near-montezuma-county-road-n\/","title":{"rendered":"Structure on fire near Montezuma County Road N"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Firefighters
Firefighters extinguished the structure fire near the 16000 block of County Road N as of early afternoon Wednesday. The fire, which started from a burn barrel Wednesday morning, was contained to the property where it originated. (Courtesy of Montezuma County)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

LEWIS-ARRIOLA \u2014 A structure fire is burning Wednesday mid morning near the 16000 block of County Road N, which authorities believe is the result of a resident burning trash piles.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin said as of 11 a.m. Wednesday, the fire is contained to one structure as firefighters from Lewis-Arriola Fire Department and Cortez Fire Protection District are responding.<\/p>\n

A county alert cautioned people passing by and motorists to yield to emergency vehicles and avoid the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe it may have been started by a woman burning trash,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cIn the last update I got, we were able to keep it contained to that property. We believe there will be arson criminal charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he wasn\u2019t sure how the investigation of an open fire during a fire ban will turn out, but Sheriff\u2019s Office detectives as well as the undersheriff are on scene.<\/p>\n

No injuries have been reported. Nowlin said crews are expected to remain on scene for some time extinguishing hot spots and ensuring the fire is fully contained.<\/p>\n

As of May 28, a fire ban is in effect for Montezuma County\u2019s incorporated areas, meaning all open fires and using fireworks are not allowed. Residential, charcoal barbecues and gas barbecue grill are acceptable, according the county\u2019s amended Ordinance No. 2 from 2015. The fine for violating the ordinance is up to $1,000.<\/p>\n

Municipalities and federal land have similar but separate restrictions. For more information on fire restrictions by jurisdiction, visit the county\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A National Weather Service red flag warning is in effect until 9 p.m. Wednesday, meaning low humidity, dry fuels and gusty winds are contributing to fire danger.<\/p>\n

In these conditions, according to the National Weather Service, fires may catch and spread quickly. Residents are cautioned to avoid open burning, burn barrels, campfires, parking in tall grass, throwing cigarettes from car windows, and welding or grinding in dry vegetation.<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fire near County Road 16000 property has no injuries so far; firefighters remain on scene<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[386,350,28,60,29,1685,1310,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-133715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-road-work-and-conditions","tag-safety-of-citizens","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133715"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133766,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133715\/revisions\/133766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133715"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=133715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}