West Fork Complex Fire at 3,280 acres

Special to The SUN

Map courtesy USFS
This map indicates road and trail closures in the area of the West Fork Complex Fire, as of June 18

Weather is predicted to be hot, dry and windy today, Tuesday, through Saturday. An infrared flight last night shows the total acreage for both fires in the West Fork Complex at 3,280 acres. There are currently about 260 people assigned to the complex.

 West Fork Fire  

The West Fork Fire made a run to the north yesterday up to treeline in the area between the West Fork River and Beaver Creek. It also continued to burn unburned pockets of fuel to the northeast in the Beaver Creek drainage; the fire also burned to the southeast into the Spring Creek drainage. Firefighters continued to work on keeping the fire from spreading to the south.  This is quite challenging because of the amount of heavy dead and down timber. Firefighters continue to employ helicopters to cool the south flank of the fire and to catch spot fires.  Sprinklers are in place to protect the structures around Born’s Lake in the event that the fire moves closer to the lake.

 Windy Pass Fire  

Yesterday, firefighters scouted and identified areas such as open meadows and previously logged areas that can be linked together to create an effective fireline. Those efforts will continue today, and as appropriate areas are identified, crews will begin line construction. Firefighters will continue with structure protection efforts for Wolf Creek Ski Area. The Windy Pass fire is southwest of Wolf Creek Pass and east of Treasure Falls.

 Closures  

There are no new closures today. The current closures are:

Roads:  West Fork Road (NFSR 648) beyond West Fork Campground, Falls Creek Road (NFSR 039) and Wolf Creek Road (NSFR 725) (and all spur roads) on the south side of U.S. 160.

Trails:

• West Fork Trail, also known as Rainbow Hot Springs Trail No. 561.

• Treasure Mountain Trail No. 565.

• Windy Pass Trail No. 566.

• Continental Divide Trail (No. 831) from its junction with the Middle Fork Trail (No. 589) east and south to its junction with the East Fork Road (NFSR 667) at Elwood Pass on the Rio Grande National Forest.

• Lobo Overlook (at the top of Wolf Creek Pass).