UPDATE: Evacuations lifted for southern El Paso County neighborhood

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office lifted an emergency evacuation that was ordered Tuesday due to a fire near Wigwam. The evacuation was in place for about 35 minutes, but no structures were reported damaged.

The fire was reported near the 20,500 block of Camino Real around 12:55 p.m., but it was contained within the hour. Some smoke was seen coming from the ground, but no flames persisted as of 2 p.m. Hanover Fire Chief Carl Tatum said the fire had the potential to take out homes had fire crews not been there in time. He said, “If we wasn’t in the position that we was at the time, we could have lost a couple vehicles on this property and a couple outbuildings. And, depending on where the nearest resources were, we could have ended up losing at least one home.”

Officials said the fire was about three acres in size and did get close to one house. It started on someone’s property, but the cause hasn’t been determined yet.

In light of the 117 and Carson-Midway fire, Chief Tatum says he’s hoping homeowners in the area will encourage them to mitigate their property. “We’ve already seen what the 117 Fire could do. I mean it moved 42 thousand acres in about an 8-hour time frame, so you know the homeowners have to take responsibility for their actions as well. Firefighters can’t do it all,” said Tatum.

No injuries have been reported. The only property lost was an unused hot tub in the neighboring property owner’s yard.

Earlier

Little is known about the fire itself at this time, but the evacuation is in place for the following area: (MAP)

Camino Real Point. Indian Village to the north Calle Bernardo Point to the south 1-25 to the east Boca Raton to the west

We have a crew on the way to the scene. This is a developing story, check back for updates.