Heavy smoke and haze choked Ouray County for a second straight day Friday as a series of wildfires churned through tinder-dry trees and brush in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued an air quality health advisory for a wide swath of southern and southwestern Colorado, including Ouray County, until 9 a.m. Saturday. Health officials said smoke has reached unhealthy levels if visibility is less than five miles in a neighborhood. They recommended young people, older adults, and anyone with heart disease or respiratory illnesses should remain indoors.
Smoke from area wildfires covers the valley between Ridgway and Ouray on Friday, as seen from this photo taken near the top of County Road 1 on Log Hill Mesa. Photo by Mike Wiggins – Ouray County Plaindealer
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park east of Montrose remained closed as crews battled a pair of lightning-sparked fires on the north and south rims of the park. All staff and visitors were evacuated Thursday, and there’s no estimated time for the park to reopen.
The largest fire in the park, the South Rim Fire, had burned 1,640 acres and was 0% contained as of Friday morning, according to the fire tracking website Inciweb. The size of the fire along the North Rim wasn’t immediately known, although it is much smaller.
The fires were sparked by lightning from mostly dry thunderstorms that moved through the Montrose and Ridgway areas early Thursday morning. The South Rim Fire blew up Thursday afternoon in the face of hot temperatures and strong winds.
A tanker from the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control drops retardant over the South Rim Fire Thursday. (Photo courtesy Montrose County Sheriff’s Posse)
“High temperatures, very low humidity, gusty winds, and very dry vegetation across the region have led to extreme fire danger at Black Canyon,” the National Park Service posted on its website.
A second wildfire, the Sowbelly Fire, had torched nearly 2,200 acres southwest of Delta as of Friday morning, according to Inciweb. The fire, burning in the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness Area in Delta, Mesa and Montrose counties, was also 0% contained.
A third fire, burning about 200 miles northeast of Ouray County in Chaffee County, has destroyed at least two homes and burned at least 60 acres. It was 50% contained as of Friday morning.
Fire crews are also battling a growing fire in southeastern Utah. The Deer Creek Fire in San Juan County, reported Thursday afternoon, had grown to more than 4,000 acres as of Thursday night, according to Utah Fire Info. The fire, which was 0% contained, forced the partial evacuation of a community known as Old La Sal just west of the Colorado state line.
The weather forecast for Ouray County for the next several days predicts continued warm weather and a slight chance of thunderstorms each day, which could either provide some relief or potentially ignite news fires. Highs will be in the mid 80s to 90 degrees in Ridgway and in the low to mid 80s in Ouray through the middle of next week.
