Evacuations in place as Bent County wildfire grows
Update: As of Sunday evening, the Black Bridge Fire is 80 percent contained at 1,600 acres. The Las Animas Fire Department will continue to monitor the fire which continues to burn the interior.
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Fire crews are working to contain the Black Bridge Fire in Bent County, where authorities have evacuated seven homes as a precaution.
More than a dozen fire agencies are at the scene battling the blaze which started Thursday evening in river bottom land just east of the Bent County Correctional Center in Las Animas.
The Colorado National Guard is assisting with water drops over the fire by two Blackhawk helicopters. A high, thick smoke plume could be seen from nearby Las Animas.
Many drivers pulled over on U.S. 50 near County Road 13 to watch the fire and take photos or record video.
“This whole area burned in 2011,” said former firefighter Jerry Maupin. “I’m watching to see if there’s any damage to power poles and power lines. I’d heard there were some outages in Fort Lyon and Lamar. But the crews know how to handle this. They’re doing a good job.”
Rick Stwalley, director of the county’s office of emergency management, said the fire’s cause is unknown.
“It was heading toward Las Animas until early Friday morning when the wind changed,” he said. “We’re still at zero percent containment. We have more than 50 firefighters here. We got lucky in that strong winds predicted for the area held off for most of the day.”
The fire is burning land thick with dead or dry vegetation. Firefighters lighted some intentional backfires to try and remove fuel consumed by the primary fire.
Stwalley said most of the land being burned is owned by the state and the Army Corps of Engineers.
“Because we have a lot of dikes around here for the Arkansas and Purgatory rivers,” Maupin said.
Smoke plumes from controlled burns were common sights Friday across the Arkansas River valley, as landowners clear away refuse to prepare for spring planting.
“I have some friends fighting that Bent County fire,” said Philip Reed, a property owner conducting a burn in nearby Otero County. “I just hope everyone doing a controlled burn keeps it under control. When it gets out of control, it can destroy homes and ranches and that’s not good.”
The Black Bridge Fire is the first major wildfire of the season in southern Colorado.
