{"id":39380,"date":"2022-07-19T12:41:38","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T18:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/firefighters-respond-to-creeping-wildfire-west-of-durango\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:49:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:49:40","slug":"firefighters-respond-to-creeping-wildfire-west-of-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/firefighters-respond-to-creeping-wildfire-west-of-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefighters respond to \u2018creeping\u2019 wildfire west of Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A single-engine air tanker drops a load of slurry on the Twin Buttes Fire on Tuesday in west Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Firefighters and air attack crews responded to a 2-acre wildfire Tuesday near western Durango city limits \u2013 a reminder that despite several weeks of above-average rainfall, fire season is still here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody breathes a pretty worthwhile sigh of relief when we start getting rain, but we\u2019re on top of a couple years\u2019 worth of significant drought,\u201d said Hal Doughty, chief of the Durango Fire Protection District. \u201cA couple of days of rain doesn\u2019t make up for a couple of years of drought.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fire was reported about noon and was \u201ccreeping\u201d through oak brush east of the Twin Buttes subdivision and north of U.S. Highway 160, said Rod Allen, battalion chief for DFPD.<\/p>\n

A thin haze of smoke wafted through the air Tuesday afternoon in downtown Durango.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighter
Firefighter Diego Lopez, with Durango Fire Protection District, uses water to knock down flames on the backside of the Twin Buttes Fire on Tuesday. The fire scorched about 2 acres in a remote area of western Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

No homes were in immediate danger, and no residents were put on pre-evacuation notice, according to La Plata County government. The fire was burning on private land within Durango city limits, according to the county.<\/p>\n\n

About 20 firefighters responded with a structural engine and two wildland engines. A helicopter and two single-engine air tankers also responded.<\/p>\n

The cause of the fire was under investigation.<\/p>\n

Doughty said firefighters received a report that people may have been in the area just before the fire started. A fire investigator was at the scene trying to identify the point of origin to better determine what caused the blaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say that human-caused is not ruled out,\u201d Doughty said.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s fire was relatively small in size, he said, but it had the potential to spread. For one, it got started in the early afternoon before winds kicked up. Secondly, it was still burning during the hottest part of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just getting up here to the top of this hill to the fire. It\u2019s 99 degrees up here, so pretty warm for firefighting,\u201d Doughty said at 3 p.m. Tuesday speaking from his cellphone.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Twin Buttes Fire burns Tuesday in west Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fire agencies have received several reports of lightning-caused wildfires in recent weeks, but those have been kept to a tenth of an acre in size for the most part, Doughty said.<\/p>\n

The lightning-caused fires typically smolder for one or two days. When the wind starts to blow, it can fan the embers and blow them onto the dry, brittle ground, he said.<\/p>\n

But wildland managers can usually monitor those naturally occurring wildfires, Doughty said. They have access to data that accurately tracks where lightning strikes occur, and whether those strikes are positive or negative charges. Positive charges are believed to result in a higher percentage of wildfires.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Forest Service firefighters work on getting a fire line around the backside of the Twin Buttes Fire on Tuesday. The fire started about noon and burned 2 acres in a remote area in western Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Durango
Durango Fire Protection District firefighters make their way to the Twin Buttes Fire on Tuesday. The fire started about noon and burned 2 acres in a remote area in western Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Local governments and land agencies enacted fire restrictions in May and June, but those have been rescinded as a result of above-average monsoonal moisture.<\/p>\n

Doughty said it is worth considering re-enacting Stage 1 fire restrictions, but many of the fires starting in the area have been small in size or the cause wouldn\u2019t have been covered under the restrictions.<\/p>\n

Similarly, no red flag warnings have been issued in recent days. That is because red flag warnings are issued when the wind, temperature and fuel moisture reach certain levels. While it has been hot and windy (in the afternoons), the fuel moisture is doing OK, said David Byers, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trees and the plant life have soaked up the moisture, and so they\u2019ve greened up,\u201d Byers said.<\/p>\n

A high-pressure system has centered itself over the Four Corners, which has caused temperatures to soar and pushed moisture to the north and east over central Colorado, he said.<\/p>\n

Temperatures are expected to remain in the 90s until Sunday. About that time, the high-pressure system will move to the Texas Panhandle, which will allow moisture to return, he said.<\/p>\n

But even then, it will only be \u201cwetting rain\u201d \u2013 about a tenth of an inch.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then, any precip and moisture you get helps,\u201d Byers said.<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Road
Road access helped firefighters get a quick jump on the Twin Buttes Fire on Tuesday in west Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Firefighter
Firefighter Diego Lopez, with Durango Fire Protection District, uses water to knock down flames on the backside of the Twin Buttes Fire on Tuesday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Firefighters
Firefighters respond to a 2-acre fire in the Twin Buttes area west of Durango on Tuesday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Firefighters
Firefighters with Durango Fire Protection District make their way to a 2-acre wildfire east of Twin Buttes on Tuesday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

scorched about 2 acres of oak brush east of Twin Buttes subdivision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1480,28,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-fire-protection-district","tag-headlines","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39380","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=39380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84317,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39380\/revisions\/84317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39380"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}