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Fire crews on Friday mopped up a wildfire that broke out Thursday morning south of Dolores, said Dolores Fire Chief Mike Zion.<\/p>\n
The 2-acre Lost Canyon Fire torched trees and created spot fires in breezy conditions on a wooded slope just east of County Road 30.<\/p>\n
But the fire is \u201cwell contained,\u201d Zion said Friday afternoon. \u201cThe cooperation between agencies is what made it all work.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Thursday evening, a firebreak around the burn had been cleared by hand crews and a skidder with a plow, he said. Brush trucks and tankers, including a 1,000-gallon unit brought in by the Lewis-Arriola Fire Protection District, also were on scene to fight the fire.<\/p>\n
The fire is being patrolled by a Type 2 federal fire crew to extinguish hot spots. A Type 2 crew is a specialized crew that is used before fire managers call on more experienced Type 1 crews, known as interagency hotshot crews.<\/p>\n
When the fire broke out, the threat that it could move down the canyon slope toward nearby homes or move north toward Dolores triggered a request for mutual aid from local and federal fire departments.<\/p>\n
Single-engine air tankers were also called in from Grand Junction and dumped two loads of water on the fire about 1 p.m. Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt cooled it off for crews to work on containment,\u201d Zion said.<\/p>\n
At one point, about 25 firefighters were on the ground. Fire crews from Dolores, Cortez, Mancos, Lewis-Arriola, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management responded.<\/p>\n
They could be seen hiking up the ridgeline toward the flames Thursday morning. Early fire behavior included single-tree torching with large flames visible from Road 30.<\/p>\n
An operations base was set up next to the Montezuma County maintenance yard.<\/p>\n
Crews worked to prevent the fire from reaching the top of the ridge, officials said. If it made a run, a fallow field to the north and gravel pits to the east provided good firebreaks.<\/p>\n
Neighbors along Road 30 looked on with concern at the fire on a hillside just east of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been creating a firebreak around my place for years, and I have plenty of hydrants,\u201d said one man on Road 30.<\/p>\n
The fire burned on private land. Smoldering from a previous lightning strike is the suspected cause. It was reported to dispatch about 10:30 a.m. Thursday by a nearby resident.<\/p>\n