EPCSO says Yoder Fire “suspicious” and unknown if it is a legal marijuana grow

Crews are still investigating the cause of a fire just south of Yoder. Investigators now say the fire is “suspicious.”

The fire started on a marijuana grow off of Fredview road around 3:20 Friday morning.

Crews from six different agencies responded along with help from Colorado Springs Utilities.

In total, they used more than 42-thousand gallons of water to put out the fire.

Right now, it is unknown if the grow site was legal, but deputies had visited the site before and said in the past, it was an illegal site.

In El Paso County, the sheriff’s office says it continues to deal with hundreds of illegal grows, which are taking a toll on their resources.

“We are seeing over 500 of them to date. I think our SWAT missions have doubled with the arrest warrants and the search warrants we have been doing with these illegal marijuana grows just from last year to this year,” said EPCSO spokesperson, Jacqueline Kirby.

The sheriff’s office says to keep up with enforcement, it is very man power intensive, pulling resources from other parts of patrol.

These raids and warrants are also costly to the county.

We are told the sheriff’s office is looking for solutions to try to bring those numbers down.