{"id":99384,"date":"2018-06-06T12:46:28","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T18:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hermosa-residents-watch-prepare-for-416-fire\/"},"modified":"2018-06-06T12:46:28","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T18:46:28","slug":"hermosa-residents-watch-prepare-for-416-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hermosa-residents-watch-prepare-for-416-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Hermosa residents watch, prepare for 416 Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Firefighters
Firefighters Isaac Duran, left, and Ryan McNertney perform fire mitigation Monday on Steve Beiser\u2019s property, who is a resident on County Road 201 near Hermosa.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

HERMOSA \u2013 As the 416 Fire moves into the Hermosa Creek Drainage, residents have grown concerned that they may be in danger and are taking it upon themselves to help protect their homes.<\/p>\n

Since the fire broke out Friday, Connie Beiser and her husband, Steve, have done fire mitigation around their home on County Road 201. The couple have been cutting down trees around their house to create a buffer zone should the fire come down toward the home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have cut down trees, and we have been watering our property in different areas for two hours, and then moving the sprinklers to another section,\u201d Connie Beiser said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing that for four days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beiser, who received a pre-evacuation notice Sunday, is concerned the fire will come down into the Jones Creek area, which would put her house at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a scale of one to 10, we are probably at a nine,\u201d she said about her level of concern. \u201cFrom different conversations we\u2019ve had with forest people, that is the fear, that it\u2019ll come down the Jones Creek area. Whether it\u2019ll stay on our side of the road or whether it\u2019ll hop across and go down into that creek \u2013 if it comes down into that creek, they (firefighters) are afraid that it\u2019ll come back up toward us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beiser has seen firefighting crews doing mitigation work on Forest Service land. They\u2019ve also been doing work around her home and her neighbors\u2019 homes to protect them. The crews have been extremely helpful and offered tips about which trees to cut and other tasks they can perform to protect their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most impressive thing about all the crews is that they stop by, they chat with you to make sure that you\u2019re safe, that you\u2019re aware of what\u2019s going on,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re nice and friendly and we appreciate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Steve
Steve Beiser, a resident on County Road 201 near Hermosa, talks with firefighters Ryan McNertney, left, and Isaac Duran on Monday while creating defensible space around Beiser\u2019s house.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Beiser bought a travel trailer to help them carry items out of the neighborhood in the event they need to evacuate.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s packed,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd when the trailer gets here, more stuff will get packed. We\u2019re not going to be brave and stick it out. If they say evacuate, see ya.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many people have attempted to watch the fire from County Road 201 but have been blocked by the Forest Service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not letting anyone in,\u201d said Missy Carter of the San Juan National Forest. \u201cThe fire is coming down quicker than we would like it to.\u201d<\/p>\n

While crews hurried to protect homes in Hermosa, about 70 firefighters continued to protect eight homes under evacuation on the west side of Highway 550.<\/p>\n

Hot-shot crews created a check line using the railroad track from Irongate Way, near where the fire started, south to the Hermosa Cemetery. The line is used to prevent the fire from affecting homes along the Highway 550 corridor.<\/p>\n

Structure protection crews continued mitigation efforts around structures in evacuated areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll do a periodic walk-through of the houses down here to make sure nothing is going on,\u201d said Hugh Fairfield-Smith, an engine captain. \u201cOther than that, we\u2019re keeping an eye on the fire, making sure everything\u2019s looking good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cody Rose, a division supervisor for the Rocky Mountain Blue Team, said structures in the area are well-protected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing everything we can,\u201d he said. \u201cSo far, we haven\u2019t lost a structure, and we don\u2019t plan on losing any structures.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crew seemed prepared to spend a decent amount of time fighting the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be here for a while,\u201d Rose said. \u201cI don\u2019t know specifically how much longer, but it\u2019ll be here for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

asemadeni@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

build defensible space around evacuated homes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-99384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99384","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=99384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99384"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=99384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}