Cameron Peak Fire passes 100-day mark

21 November 2020

Published by https://www.reporterherald.com/

USA – One hundred and one days after it first started on Aug. 13, crews continued to work to extinguish the Cameron Peak Fire Saturday.

Operations section chief Steve North, in a Facebook update Saturday morning, said crews were working to build fire line to create a “catcher’s mitt” area to prevent the fire from backing down to the Colorado State University mountain campus.

Helicopter crews worked Friday and Saturday to douse hot spots in the Pingree Park area, he said. They also have focused on the bulge near Glen Haven and doused an area of heat that appeared on South Signal Mountain on Friday.

Much of the work recently has focused on repairing fire line and other damage caused as firefighters worked on the 208,913-acre area, the largest wildfire in Colorado history.

North said a suppression repair dashboard, updated by crews in the field using a cellphone app, on Saturday morning showed they had repaired 33.9 miles of fire line, had 20.3 miles in progress and 49.2 miles left to go.

They also have completed 51.7 miles of road repair, have 25.6 miles of road repair in progress and 89 miles to go.

A total of 319 firefighters remain working the fire area, which is 92% contained.

The Northwest Incident Management Team 10, which assumed command of the fire Nov. 8, will turn it over Sunday to the Southern Area Gold Team (type 2).

The fire cause remains under investigation, but U.S. Forest Service officials have said they believe it was human-caused.