Lower North Fork Fire Now 70% Contained

Authorities say they’re investigating problems with an emergency notification system because some residents who had signed up to get wildfire warnings never got one.

About 12 percent of people failed to get a warning about a wildfire on Monday. Jefferson County sheriff’s spokesman Mark Techmeyer said Friday that some of those people likely hung up because of the pause that precedes the automated message or their phone may have been busy.

He says there was no attempt to reach an unknown number of other people registered to get them.

The company that handles the system says it worked exactly as it should. The president of FirstCall Network Inc. didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Techmeyer says the county needs to find out more about what happened.

On Friday, the fire is 70% contained. There has been no growth in the fire over the past two days. The fire is now being managed by Harvey’s Great Basin Incident Management Team after transitioning with the local Jefferson County Incident Management Team on Thursday.

Hickenlooper visited the 6-square-mile burn area southwest of Denver Thursday. The fire destroyed or damaged 27 homes.

Hickenlooper says the review will be done with “a great sense of urgency” but cautioned against rushing to judgment.

He has suspended the use of prescribed burns on state lands until the review is complete. The ban doesn’t affect federal land – which accounts for over a third of Colorado – but the governor urged counties and federal agencies to consider a temporary suspension.

Forest managers use prescribed burns to clear out dried vegetation in hopes of preventing a catastrophic fire.

Click here to see pictures of the wildfire.