Oak Ridge Fire still 25% contained; planned burns expected to increase smoke Friday night
The ongoing Oak Ridge Fire remained 25% contained Friday after growing just 2 acres Thursday, according to an update from Rocky Mountain Area Complex Incident Management Team 3, which is overseeing firefighting operations.
The lightning-caused fire that began June 22 about 3 miles northwest of Beulah in Pueblo County has now burned 1,193 acres. Nearly 800 personnel were fighting the blaze as of Friday.
“We had a really good day yesterday, all through the night everything was pretty quiet. We got a lot done,” Matt Holte, operations section chief trainee for the Oak Ridge Fire, said in a Friday fire briefing.
Strategic operations planned for Friday evening
Strategic firing operations were expected to begin Friday evening on the southeastern corner of the fire, and a “plan has been developed to put in a fireline along a ridge that can be more easily accessed by crews,” fire officials stated.
That plan, if implemented, would begin by using drip torches — a tool used in wildfire suppression to intentionally ignite fires by dripping flaming fuel onto the ground — to “fire and widen an existing containment line.”
Later, an aerial ignition using unmanned aircraft systems “may be used to burn fuels from the fireline to the main line,” according to Friday’s update. Aerial ignition entails firefighters igniting fuels by dropping incendiary devices or materials from aircraft.
The operation would help contain the fire in an area “that has been difficult to access and allow firefighters to work in a more accessible area with a higher probability of success,” officials stated.
The plan was “carefully developed, evaluating appropriate firefighting tactics that best align the needed outcome with weather and fuel conditions,” and people in the fire area should expect to see additional smoke as fuels burn out, according to Friday’s update.
“That burn operation will probably take another two to three days, so you’re going to start seeing some more smoke in the air and that will probably add another 300 to 350 acres to the size of the fire,” Holte said Friday.
In an update earlier this week, Holte said officials were expecting the fire to grow to “between 6,500 and 7,000 acres by when it’s done.”
The fire's current estimated containment date is July 24.
Fire officials remind recreational drone pilots they cannot fly near fire
A Temporary Flight Restriction is in place over the fire area, and any incursions in the TFR are immediately reported to law enforcement for potential legal action.
“Yesterday, there was an incursion up by (Bishop Castle) and when that happens, we have to shut all of our aircraft down, so we lose all support for our people burning and our people in these really steep, rough areas, they have no support from our aircraft,” Holte said Friday.
“The TFR includes personal drones, so please, please keep those out of the Temporary Flight Restriction area," he said.
Friday smoke outlook for the fire area
Due to the planned strategic firing operation, the U.S. Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program’s Wildfire Smoke Outlook report for Friday stated people might see moderate smoke in the area of Beulah and possibly Westcliffe late into the evening.
“East winds will keep the smoke near the fire and to the northeast until winds change from the west,” the report stated, with smoke in the area east of the fire to Beulah and east to the Colorado City area.
The Cañon City, Florence, Westcliffe, Wetmore, Pueblo, and Colorado City areas were expected to have “Good” air quality Friday, with haze visible due to smoke from other fires.
Additional information about the Oak Ridge Fire can be found on the Oak Ridge Fire 2024 Facebook page at facebook.com/oakridgefire2024, or nciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/copsf-oak-ridge-fire.
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Chieftain Editor Zach Hillstrom can be reached at zhillstrom@gannett.com, or on X, at @ZachHillstrom. Support local news, subscribe to the Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Oak Ridge Fire still 25% contained Friday, has now burned 1,193 acres
