{"id":46171,"date":"2021-06-18T23:31:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T05:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-wildfire-grows-southeast-of-mesa-verde-as-winds-shift\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:29:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:29:58","slug":"update-wildfire-grows-southeast-of-mesa-verde-as-winds-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-wildfire-grows-southeast-of-mesa-verde-as-winds-shift\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Wildfire grows southeast of Mesa Verde as winds shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A wildfire, photographed from Cortez Municipal Airport, erupted Friday afternoon on Ute Mountain Ute land south of Cortez. (The Journal)<\/span>The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Multiple fire agencies responded to a wildfire that erupted Friday afternoon on Ute Mountain Ute tribal land south of Cortez, and a weather front Saturday afternoon shifted the fire southeast of Mesa Verde National Park toward La Plata Canyon.<\/p>\n

Both fires were on Ute Mountain Ute tribal land.<\/p>\n

The Mud Creek Fire 2 was reported to the Durango Fire Interagency Dispatch Center at 2:59 p.m. Friday. It was burning in remote pi\u00f1on-sage terrain on Ute Mountain Ute tribal land about 3 miles east of Ute Mountain and 5 miles west of Cortez Municipal Airport.<\/p>\n

It was near the remote western end of Whiskey Road, according to the Durango dispatch center.<\/p>\n

Other agencies included Bureau of Indian Affairs fire crews and Bureau of Land Management. Type 2 and Type 3 crews, said Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin.<\/p>\n

Peter Ortego, general counsel of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, said two Type 1 single-engine airtankers were supporting the firefight, along with one Type 3 SEAT and two Helitac helicopters. More than 20 firefighters were on the scene Saturday, and a second Hotshots crew was expected Saturday.<\/p>\n

Initially reported as a 1-acre fire, the fire\u2019s footprint grew quickly to more than 10 acres Friday afternoon, sending up a plume of smoke that was seen for more than 20 miles.<\/p>\n

At 5:55 p.m. Friday, Ortego estimated the fire had grown to about 35 acres. No structures were at risk, he said.<\/p>\n

A second fire was burning on about 100 acres on tribal land in Trail Canyon, southeast of Mesa Verde National Park, according to the Durango Interagency Dispatch Center. A Type 2 fire crew of 11 firefighters was on the ground, and about a dozen smokejumpers have arrived to assist in the firefight, Ortego said.<\/p>\n

Saturday, a \u201cweather squall\u201d brought strong winds blowing southeast, increasing the fire\u2019s size and shifting its movement southeast, Ortego said Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The two fires started in record-breaking hot weather in Southwest Colorado and amid a fire ban and red flag warning in Montezuma County. The red flag warning,<\/a> which means critical fire weather conditions are either occurring or are expected, remains in effect until 9 p.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n

Winds were blowing from the northeast about 15 mph when the fire was reported. A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity and high temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior. Relative humidity Friday was reported at 16%, according to the National Weather Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Temperatures this week reached more than 100 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday, and hit 95 degrees at the city airport by 2 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n

The weather service forecasts continued hot and dry weather for the weekend, with highs reaching 97 degrees.<\/p>\n

This article will be updated as more information becomes available.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Additional Hotshots arriving at fire west of Cortez Municipal Airport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,144,547,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-towaoc","tag-ute-mountain-ute-indian-tribe","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46171","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=46171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86775,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46171\/revisions\/86775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46171"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}