Boulder County sheriff’s officials have lifted evacuation order as crews contained a 24-acre grass fire that had been fanned by near-hurricane-strength wind gusts in the 5300 block of Nelson Road west of Longmont.
Boulder County sheriff’s Division Chief Robert Sullenberger said the fire destroyed two barns and one outbuilding, all on one property.
Sullenberger said the fire burned about 24 acres, but there were no injuries, and that no animals were harmed in the blaze.
No homes were damaged in the wildfire, but Sullenberger said the fire did encroach upon one home in the area, but firefighters were able to protect the structure.
The sheriff’s office evacuated about 125 people and animals to the Boulder County Fairgrounds, and Sullenberger said that as of 11 a.m. there was no timeline as to when people evacuated from their homes would be able to return.
Sullenberger said that although the fire is contained, firefighters are monitoring hot spots to make sure there are not flare-ups that escape the containment zone.
Sullenberger couldn’t give a definite cause for what is being called the Rogers Fire, but said in his experience the high wind gusts likely combined with power line arcing to spark the fire.
He estimated the wind gusts at one point were as high as 70 miles per hour.
“It was really blowing … I was on 75th (Street) and there was a cornfield to the west and the wind was stirring up the dirt so bad that literally we had white-out conditions there for about a quarter of a mile,” Sullenberger said.
Sullenberger said the 125 people evacuated to the fairgrounds were cooperative and described the evacuation as very orderly.
The wind downed several power lines that affected power and traffic signals in Longmont.
As of 11 a.m., Longmont Police Deputy Chief Jeff Satur said that the traffic signals had been restored and the power outages were contained to the Countryside Village of Longmont neighborhood south of Quail Road and east of South Main Street.
“We anticipate having the power back on in that area of the city around 3 p.m. and anticipate having the poles fixed either Saturday or Sunday,” Satur said. “We’ve had people with power lines laying over their car and our fire department helped them get it out. Our public works forestry division are out cutting trees out of roads to get the roads clear … yes, we think the worst is over.”
Satur reiterated that if someone encounters a downed power line, they should stay away from it and call Longmont Power & Communications at 303-651-8386.
Satur said there were no injuries from the wind gusts or downed power lines in Longmont that he knew of, although a police officer did have to dodge a piece of metal that came loose from a building.
“At a building over by the Sugar Mill a big section of sheet metal came off and one of the officers had to take evasive action to get out of the way of that,” Satur said.
Tom Herman was helped by his daughter Emily Pullen and her best friend, Lauren Gourley, along with their husbands, in evacuating from Chance Acres this morning. He saw flames when he woke up, but still wondered what the sheriff’s office wanted with him, when he received a reverse 911 call at about 5:30 a.m., alerting them to the danger.
“I’ve never been through this before,” he said. “My wife’s from California. She told me to grab all the valuables, the safes, guns and everything else that we could think of. Then these two showed up and we got all the pictures.”
Pullen arrived with her husband from Estes Park and Gourley arrived with her husband from Loveland to help Herman secure the house and fill a fifth-wheeler with belongings.
“It took both of us and all of our strength to close the shed door when we ran in to get the sprinkler,” Gourley said.
Pullen said her husband advised them to turn on a sprinkler to soak the grass in case the fire came closer to their house.
“We’ve had strong winds at that house forever, but it’s impressive wind,” she said.
She said it was hard to leave the house she grew up in, not knowing the fire’s outcome.
“I’m a very optimistic person and you know, I trust the fire departments and everybody else that are out there, but the winds are strong and it’s kind of an eerie feeling. We’ll be going back to the house hopefully, but you also don’t know.”
Helene Huggett, who with her husband, Colin, owns the Heart & Soul Ranch, 10069 N. 65th St., said it took eight horse trailers to evacuate 21 horses and one miniature donkey to the Boulder County Fairgrounds.
The neighbors really rallied to help us, thanks to all the horse people,” Huggett said.
Horse whinnying echoed through the barns at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, where horse owners tended to their livestock after evacuating.
Kim Lampert, Somerset Farms owner for 17 years, said she was sent into a “two-and-a-half hour scramble” when she received the first emergency text at 6:32 a.m. to gather up the 38 horses on her property at 5555 Nelson Road. She said people showed up with trailers to help.
“My three were the easiest to get on the trailer because they’ve done it before,” she said. “They were like, ‘Oh, this is an emergency.’ It’s hard to convince a horse to get on a trailer when it’s kind of timid, then you add the stress of smoke and wind and they’re like, ‘I’m not gettin’ in there.’ So there’s a lot of encouragement.”
Lampert said her farm is one house northwest of the farm that was on fire.
“That’s as close as I want it to be,” Lampert said. “It was blowing right at us. It nearly blew the door off my car. The last time we had this type of fire I lost the door to my Jeep.”
Susan O’Kelley, a boarder at the farm, said she’s amazed by how people come together to offer help in an emergency. She said she went through an evacuation six or seven years ago.
“You always know: go to the fairgrounds,” O’Kelley said.
Satur noted that Boulder County had in recent weeks seen more than one strong windstorm, and expressed surprise that today’s winds had such serious consequences
“We just seemed to go through a big strong windstorm, and we didn’t have these kinds of situations happen,” Satur said. “And now a month later, I think from the gusts and from things like that, they must have been in the right spot and the right time.”
St. Vrain Valley Schools announced that due to power outages triggered by the grass fires, bus routes for schools in west Longmont have been disrupted. District officials and local authorities are monitoring conditions in the area and said they will relay more information as it becomes available.
Winds in Boulder County today are gusting over 70 mph, and unusually warm temperatures have left grass and other fuels particularly dry. One gust of 74 mph was recorded at Longmont’s Vance Brand Municipal Airport at 8:33 a.m. today
Temperatures are forecast today to reach as high as 71 degrees, ahead of a cold front Saturday that could bring an inch or so of snow on Saturday night.
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