{"id":21401,"date":"2025-07-17T22:59:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T22:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wildfire-in-southwest-la-plata-county-prompts-pre-evacuation-notice\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:06:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:06:03","slug":"wildfire-in-southwest-la-plata-county-prompts-pre-evacuation-notice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wildfire-in-southwest-la-plata-county-prompts-pre-evacuation-notice\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfire in southwest La Plata County prompts pre-evacuation notice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"An
An air tanker drops a load of slurry on the Ute 63 Fire on Thursday that has burned more than 500 acres in southwest La Plata County. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

REDMESA \u2013 An evacuation warning was issued Wednesday for 25 structures in the southwest corner of La Plata County, where a 542-acre wildfire was burning out of control.<\/p>\n

The Ute 63 Fire was first reported Sunday afternoon near Morgan Canyon on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, about 4 miles west of La Plata Highway (Colorado Highway 140) and 7 miles southwest of Redmesa.<\/p>\n

The naturally caused fire grew from 111 acres Tuesday to 537 acres by Wednesday evening. It was listed as 542 acres Thursday afternoon, but that was before Thursday evening mapping.<\/p>\n

It is burning in a remote part of the county.<\/p>\n

A Type 2 federal team was expected to take over operations Friday morning, relieving the Durango Interagency Type 3 team, which was initially assigned to the fire.<\/p>\n

The Type 3 team provided air tankers, helicopters, a dozer and about 96 firefighters, according to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe.<\/p>\n

The seriousness became elevated because of the fire\u2019s advance toward La Plata Highway, said Richard Gustafson, who had been serving as incident commander.<\/p>\n

The blaze had not destroyed any structures as of Thursday afternoon, but it came within 1\u00bd miles of structures, he said.<\/p>\n

The fire reached 25% containment as of Wednesday, then went back down to 0% containment by Thursday evening, Gustafson said. The blaze, which has moved into Morgan Canyon, was on Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute reservations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been zigzagging, and then it made a run and that compromised all the (protective) lines that we were building,\u201d Gustafson said. \u201cEvery day has been a bit of a surprise for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the unpredictability surrounding the fire\u2019s spread and containment is due to rapid changes in wind patterns, and weather oscillating between dry and humid conditions in recent days, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Rich
Rich Gustafson, right, fire management officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Southern Ute Agency, speaks as the Ute 63 Fire incident commander on Thursday as Scott Nielsen, battalion chief with Durango Fire Protection District and incident command in training looks on. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Kris Sanders, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said there is a 40 to 60% chance of rain occurring in the area of the fire over the weekend, but that 45 mph wind gusts are expected to accompany any rainstorms, potentially increasing the chance of the fire spreading.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s pre-evacuaton warning was for homes just north of the New Mexico state line along the west side of La Plata Highway. The notice was expected to remain in place at least through Friday morning.<\/p>\n

\"Zachary
Zachary Saville, a wildland firefighter with Durango Fire Protection District, looks toward the Ute 63 Fire on Thursday that has burned more than 500 acres in southwest La Plata County. The DFPD fire crew was assigned structure protection at a ranch in the pre-evacuation zone. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Reported spotting was occurring Wednesday and Thursday, in which the fire jumps over a stretch of land and causes additional smaller fires. More than 100 firefighters are responding.<\/p>\n

In the event that evacuations are necessary, La Plata County reported a check-in location and shelter at the Breen Community Center, 15300 La Plata Highway.<\/p>\n

May Morley, secretary-treasurer at the Breen Community Center, said the facility is ready for potential evacuees. \u201cWe\u2019ve got running water and shelter, and we\u2019re there for people,\u201d Morley said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The pre-evacuation zone \u2012 in yellow \u2012 resulting from the Ute 63 fire, which had grown to 537 acres Wednesday in southwest La Plata County.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Arlene Thomas, a Hesperus resident of 25 years who lives on farmland within the pre-evacuation zone, says she and her husband aren\u2019t worried about the blaze reaching their home, but has been considering what she might take with her and how to best protect her cattle if she has to evacuate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been watching the fire from the hill,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cHopefully it\u2019s fully contained here soon. In the back side of our property, there\u2019s a lot of sage. We don\u2019t have a lot of trees or anything though, so I feel fairly safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Arlene
Arlene Thomas, a Hesperus resident on pre-evacuation notice, talks about the Ute 63 Fire on Thursday that is burning behind her home in southwest La Plata County. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Thomas said the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office, along with firefighters, visited her home to assess the danger and \u201cfelt like they\u2019d be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether pre-evacuation notices become full-fledged evacuation notices over the next few days is largely weather-dependent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think right now we\u2019re fine where we\u2019re at,\u201d Gustafson said. \u201cWe\u2019ll assess evacuation alerts daily.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An
An air tanker preparing to drop a load of slurry on the Ute 63 Fire. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Assisting agencies included Los Pinos Fire, Fort Lewis Mesa Fire, Durango Fire, Upper Pine Fire, San Juan County (N.M.) Fire, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.<\/p>\n

Additional California fire crews and resources are expected to join the effort over the weekend, Gustafson said.<\/p>\n

This article has been made available free of charge to all readers in the interest of public safety<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Ute 63 Fire was first reported Sunday afternoon near Morgan Canyon on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, about 4 miles west of La Plata Highway (Colorado Highway 140) and about 7 miles southwest of Redmesa. It had grown to 537 acres as of Wednesday evening. (Courtesy of Watch Duty)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Durango
Durango Fire Protection District and Independent Log Co. from Cortez, are assigned to structure protection on Tuesday at a ranch in the pre-evacuation zone as the Ute 63 Fire burns. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federal Type 2 team to take command of 542-acre blaze Friday morning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,2203,2187,629,2153,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-marvel","tag-redmesa","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe","tag-u-s-bureau-of-indian-affairs","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21401","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=21401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77294,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21401\/revisions\/77294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21401"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}