{"id":16858,"date":"2025-08-19T16:57:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T22:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/progress-made-on-stoner-mesa-fire-but-conditions-could-shift-quickly\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:02:19","slug":"progress-made-on-stoner-mesa-fire-but-conditions-could-shift-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/progress-made-on-stoner-mesa-fire-but-conditions-could-shift-quickly\/","title":{"rendered":"Progress made on Stoner Mesa Fire, but conditions could shift quickly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chris
Chris Edelen, a board member with the West Fork Volunteer Fire Department, center left, lives about 2 miles from the fire along County Road 38 in the small community of Blue Spruce Glen in Dolores. Edelen is pictured alongside Scott Ramsey, left, Chief of WFVFD Toby Hamilton and Tommy Johnson. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Monday night, several dozen people gathered at the West Fork Volunteer Fire Department off County Road 38 for the second such public meeting on the Stoner Mesa Fire, scorching nearly 9,000 acres as of Tuesday morning, with a reminder that along with progress comes the fire\u2019s changing state.<\/p>\n

\u201cFolks on the ground have made a lot of good progress over the last few days,\u201d said Nick Mustoe, Dolores District ranger, who pointed to advantages such as more consistent wind direction and fewer windy days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said, it\u2019s really important that we don\u2019t get complacent out there,\u201d Mustoe said.<\/p>\n

While extensive containment lines have been laid down, properties placed in protective status and 670 personnel reported to be working on the fire, shifting weather conditions put more pressure on containment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hotter, drier weather will be a test of some of those lines and the work that has been done,\u201d said a Tuesday morning news release from Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 1.<\/p>\n

At 7 p.m. on Monday evening, Road 38 from the Dolores County Line up to Navajo Trailhead were placed on \u201cReady\u201d evacuation status.<\/p>\n

Fire is most real for nearby residents<\/div>\n

For nearby residents like Chris Edelen, a board member with the WFVFD, the risk posed by the fire is a reality, although he says he feels reassured by the work he\u2019s seen from firefighters.<\/p>\n

Edelen says he lives in the small community of Blue Spruce Glen just off County Road 38, which is about 2 miles from the fire\u2019s perimeter. Teams have reduced the risk of fire around his property by whacking weeds and trimming trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey come into our neighborhood, they\u2019ve cataloged all the homes, they\u2019ve had teams in here everyday making sure they\u2019re as good as they can get them,\u201d Edelen said.<\/p>\n

Edelen said he and his wife have showed their gratitude to the nearby incident camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I took a bunch of trays of cookies down to the fire camp,\u201d he said. Firefighters were appreciative of the gesture, said Edelen.<\/p>\n

\"Tents
Tents pitched at an incident camp along County Road 38 for firefighters working on the Stoner Mesa Fire. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jeanna
Jeanna and Gordon Kuhlman live on a ranch off of U.S. Highway 145 and own a cabin on County Road 38. They say that they\u2019ll be ready to evacuate if the time comes. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal).<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For longtime residents, Jeanna and Gordon Kuhlman, who live further from the flames on a ranch in Dolores off of U.S. Highway 145, the fire is also a real threat, but they both say that they\u2019d be ready to evacuate if need be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve lived here all our lives,\u201d said Jeanna, 89, standing next to her husband, 95. They said that two neighbors drove them up the road to attend the meeting.<\/p>\n

The Kuhlmans also own a cabin along County Road 38, which Gordon says his mother was born in.<\/p>\n

Jeanna gave a fire official her home phone number in case they needed to be called for an evacuation.<\/p>\n

\"Helicopter
Helicopter seen above Stoner Mesa Fire on Aug. 19, the only one reported at the time to be in use by firefighters. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Work to contain the fire carries on<\/div>\n

By Tuesday morning, fire was reported to have moved up the north side of Stoner Creek but reached a smoldering state after consuming heavier fuels, according to a news release. Crews made direct line tied to an existing bulldozer line on the region\u2019s west edge close to Road 335. The area is now in mop-up stage.<\/p>\n

Officials say they continue to prioritize protecting structures north of the fire along County Road 38 toward Dunton. But, they say predictive modeling suggests a low likelihood of the fire reaching the road.<\/p>\n

East of the fire, closer to Rico, roads opened for fire access are still being cleared of debris, while spot fires that started in the area are in a mop up stage and patrols are underway to monitor a fire line present. Officials report that they may conduct some controlled burnings in the area to reduce the future chances of spot fires.<\/p>\n

West of the fire, atop Stoner Mesa, dozers work on indirect lines to contain the chance of a spread emerging out of Stoner Canyon. Some controlled burns are also taking place to support line construction south of Sunshine Reservoir along the Stoner Mesa Trail.<\/p>\n

South of the fire, scouting takes place for containment lines in Stoner Canyon and on Taylor Mesa. Heavy equipment used fort more line building will be entering the area on Road 201. Lines are being built on Roads 210 and 547 for the next several days.<\/p>\n

Weather and smoke ahead<\/div>\n

Hot and dry conditions are reported for today. Days ahead are expected to have low relative humidity, high temperatures in the afternoon and minimal cloud cover.<\/p>\n

Further ahead for the remaining week, some increases in relative humidity and cloud are expected, with possible afternoon thunderstorms.<\/p>\n

Air quality from smoke is expected to be moderate to unhealthy in the mornings for Cortez and Dolores, but typically improve during the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the way from Cortez to Dove Creek we\u2019ve been seeing a lot of unhealthy for sensitive groups and even a few hours of unhealthy (air quality),\u201c said Mark Struthwolf, an air resource adviser.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, it doesn\u2019t last that long,\u201d said Struthwolf, who added that these air quality index levels are typically present at night. Shifting winds from the day improve air quality levels, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Helicopter
Helicopter seen above Stoner Mesa Fire on Aug. 19, the only one reported at the time to be in use by firefighters. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chris
Chris Edelen, a Board Member with the West Fork Volunteer Fire Department, center left, lives about two miles from the fire along County Road 38 in the small community of Blue Spruce Glen in Dolores. Edelen is pictured alongside Scott Ramsey, left, Chief of WFVFD Toby Hamilton and Tommy Johnson. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Containment lines secured, but hot, dry weather will test progress<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16858","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=16858"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20433,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16858\/revisions\/20433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16858"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}