{"id":16914,"date":"2025-08-15T13:22:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/polis-declares-statewide-disaster-emergency-due-to-critical-fire-weather-conditions-fires-burning-across-western-slope\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:38:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:38:36","slug":"polis-declares-statewide-disaster-emergency-due-to-critical-fire-weather-conditions-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/polis-declares-statewide-disaster-emergency-due-to-critical-fire-weather-conditions-fires\/","title":{"rendered":"Polis declares statewide disaster emergency due to critical fire weather conditions, fires burning across Western Slope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A column of smoke and flames inside the evacuation zone of the Lee Fire along Highway 13 between Meeker and Rifle on Tuesday. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As yet another large wildfire grows on the Western Slope, Gov. Jared Polis has declared a disaster emergency statewide<\/a> and authorized the use of the National Guard.<\/p>\n

The Crosho Fire<\/a>, which sparked Monday southwest of Steamboat Springs, is now more than 1,700 acres, with no containment.<\/p>\n

To the west, the Lee Fire<\/a> remains the largest in the state \u2013 and fifth largest in state history \u2013 at more than 127,000 acres, or roughly 200 square miles.<\/p>\n

Firefighting crews working several fires across the Western Slope are facing critical fire danger.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s executive order allocates an additional $2.5 million to the Wildfire Emergency Response Fund. The order said that $1.5 million of the $1.7 million allocated for this fire season has already been spent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new action will bolster our ability to jump on fires early in partnership with local communities, and will help ensure the state, in partnership with local communities, has the resources necessary to combat wildfires this season,\u201d Polis said in the order.<\/p>\n

The order also provides more support to the Division of Fire Prevention and Control so that it can work with local agencies to pre-position firefighting assets for future fires.<\/p>\n

There are nine large fires across the state and 24 uncontained fires. More than 185,000 acres have burned. More than 2,300 firefighters and personnel are fighting them. The effort includes 41 aircraft, including federal, state, National Guard, county and local equipment and crews.<\/p>\n

The governor’s order called it a \u201crecord-level\u201d of fires, with critical fire weather conditions and risk expected to continue throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

Red flag warnings continue for most of the state<\/a>. Air quality alerts are in place for the entire Western Slope due to dangerous wildfire smoke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lee Fire<\/div>\n

New evacuations were called on Wednesday on the southern edge of the Lee Fire<\/a> as it creeps closer to the city of Rifle.<\/p>\n

The fire is only 3% contained, and that percentage dropped this week from 6% as the fire grew.<\/p>\n

Many residents outside the town of Meeker remain evacuated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Firefighters are working to protect structures and critical infrastructure such as oil and gas operations.<\/p>\n

Elk Fire<\/div>\n

The nearby Elk Fire<\/a> in Rio Blanco County has been significantly controlled: It is 75 % contained at 14,518 acres.<\/p>\n

According to daily updates from the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team 3, firefighters and equipment are being moved to the Lee Fire burning in Rio Blanco and Garfield counties.<\/p>\n

Both counties are big ranching communities. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are more than 1,000 farmers in the two counties.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, Curt Russell, told CPR News that the organization is working to provide aid to affected ranchers, including emergency funding, feed and hay, and even helping them relocate livestock to pastures on the Eastern Plains.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the fires are out is when the big push will come,\u201d Russell said. \u201cThen we’ll be looking at, OK, so it burned up all your grass, it burned up all your fences. Where can we go with these cows until we can get things back together?\u201d<\/p>\n

He said fencing can cost tens of thousands of dollars to replace.<\/p>\n

Crosho Fire<\/div>\n

The Crosho Fire<\/a> in Garfield, Rio Blanco and Routt Counties is 1,700 acres and 0% contained. Some evacuations have been called for the area, with other areas on standby.<\/p>\n

Nearby residents and campers have been forced to evacuate, and several nearby county roads are closed. Nearly 200 resources are working the fire, which straddles both Rio Blanco and Routt counties.<\/p>\n

Portions of Routt National Forest are closed<\/a>. Officials said today that the fire was growing on all sides on both public and private land.<\/p>\n

\"Flames
Flames burn on Taylor Mesa, on the eastern side of the Stoner Mesa Fire, on Aug. 12. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Stoner Mesa Fire<\/div>\n

The Stoner Mesa Fire<\/a> in Montezuma and Dolores counties is 7,389 acres and 0% contained. It\u2019s burning on public lands and no evacuations have been called, though some campgrounds have been closed.<\/p>\n

In a daily update, Rocky Mountain Team 1 Operations Section Chief Matt Weakland said the efforts were focused on protecting the town of Rico. A fire weather watch for dry thunderstorms has been issued for Friday.<\/p>\n

Efforts are also focused on containing the north side of the fire and preventing it from reaching Highway 38.<\/p>\n

Oak Fire<\/div>\n

The Oak Fire<\/a> burning in Archuleta County is 78% contained at 75 acres. Evacuation orders were lifted yesterday and residents were able to return home, according to the Archuleta County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

South Rim Fire<\/div>\n

The South Rim Fire<\/a> burning in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, in Montrose County, is 4,232 acres and 52% contained.<\/p>\n

The North Rim of the park reopened on July 31. The South Rim is set to reopen on Aug. 18<\/a>. Visitors will be able to drive the South Rim Road, access the visitor and Tomichi and Gunnison Point overlooks, and visit the park store. But some portions of the park will remain closed for cleanup and repairs.<\/p>\n

The fire is isolated in deep canyons and inaccessible areas, according to incident command. The fire is smoldering but not active<\/a>, and \u201cposes very little risk of spread outside the current fire footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner Gulch Fire<\/div>\n

The Turner Gulch Fire in Unaweep Canyon outside the community of Gateway has been smoldering for over a month, with flare-ups in fire activity in recent days. Some pre-evacuations are still in place<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fire is 29,068 acres and 53% contained, with 616 firefighters on the scene.<\/p>\n

Crews have focused on protecting structures and preventing spread along Highway 141. Ground crews are working on controlling the western perimeter of the fire, extinguishing hot spots and digging fire lines where necessary.<\/p>\n

CPR\u2019s Dan Boyce contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A column of smoke and flames inside the evacuation zone of the Lee Fire along Highway 13 between Meeker and Rifle on Tuesday. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News) As yet another large wildfire grows on the Western Slope, Gov. Jared Polis has declared a disaster emergency statewide and authorized the use of the National Guard. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,350,28,258,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-western-slope","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914","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=16914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20462,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914\/revisions\/20462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16914"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}