Middle Fork Fire Fact Sheet
Incident Commander: Jeramy Dietz, Type 3 IMT
Acres: 19,885
Fire Information phone line: 970-439-4725
Inciweb: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7153/
Today’s Situation: There was a small increase in acreage on the Middle Fork Fire yesterday. The fire grew 103 acres on the northern portion of the fire. Firefighters continue to build containment lines and extinguish hot spots along the fire perimeter where safe to insert crews. Firefighters continue to pre plan for the possibility of increased fire activity. While building containment lines, firefighters are also scouting and identifying road and trail systems that can be used as containment lines if needed. Aviation resources will shuttle crews into areas of the fire that are inaccessible by foot to perform suppression operations.
Please be aware of additional trails and roads that are included in the Middle Fork Fire Public Safety Closure Order. To view the order and closure map, please visit inciweb at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7153/. Please avoid the closure area to allow firefighting resources to safely travel to and throughout the incident to perform suppression operations.
Weather: Dry and breezy conditions will continue over the fire area in the next 24 hours as a dry northwest flow persists into the weekend. Similar conditions are expected into next week.
- Today-Mostly sunny skies with highs of 49-54 degrees and relative humidity of 18-23%. Winds out of the west at 3-6 mph by 10:00 am increasing to 10-15 mph with gusts to 30 mph in the afternoon.
- Tonight- Clear night skies with lows between 29-34 degrees and relative humidity of 49-54% with winds out of the west at 10-15 mph with gusts to 25 mph.
Fire Behavior: Due to strong winds in the fire area, moderate fire behavior with some torching, flanking, and backing fire towards the northeast, northwest and southeast is possible.
Firefighting Resources: Approximately 136 personnel are assigned to the fire, including five helicopters, two single engine airtankers, one air attack aviation supervision module, two hotshot crews, five engines, and multiple overhead positions.
Evacuations: There are no evacuation or pre-evacuation orders in effect for Routt County. Pre-evacs are in place in Jackson county for Rainbow Lakes, Aqua Fria, as well as Teal and Tiago Lakes areas. This is not intended for the Rainbow Lakes Community. That notification from Jackson County was primarily made for hunters, and ranchers with cattle in those areas. Not all management action points stimulate evacuations, however if the fire were to reach any pre-identified management action points that are evacuation related, it would trigger Routt and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office to initiate pre-evacuation orders through their reverse-911 system. To sign up for alerts, visit http://routtcountyalerts.com or https://jacksoncountyor.org/emergency/Resources/Citizen-Alert. The county provides tips for wildfire preparedness, including planning for pets and livestock, on their website at http://www.co.routt.co.us/309/Fire-Safety-Tips-for-Rural-Residents.
Fire Restrictions: Stage 2 Fire Restrictions are in effect in Routt and Jackson counties, on all the Routt National Forest, and across much of Northwest Colorado. For additional information, please visit the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest website at https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/mbr/home