Archuleta County Sheriff's Office Director of Emergency Operations Mike Le Roux reported this morning that the Escondido Fire on County Road 500 was cleared last night around 10 p.m. The fire was 100 percent contained at 4.2 acres.
The fire was bordered by the San Juan River to the south and farmland to the north. No structures were threatened.
Le Roux said that the reporting party was extremely helpful and remained on the phone with dispatch providing up-to-the minute information until crews arrived on scene. The party also notified La Plata Electric Association (LPEA) immediately once the power lines were damaged.
More than 1,200 members of LPEA were sporadically and temporarily impacted Thursday due to high winds throughout the region.
LPEA spokesperson Indiana Reed wrote in an email to The SUN, "While initial outages were the result of wires clashing and wind-blown branches disrupting the lines, as the winds increased, LPEA’s power lines were brought down. Though details have not been confirmed at this time to LPEA, a downed line along Archuleta CR 500, which impacted 340 members, did spark a fire."
Crews will be on scene this morning to continue with mop-up work.
"We had a true multi-agency response last night," said Le Roux. Fire support was provided by Los Pinos Fire Protection District, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pagosa Fire Protection District (PFPD), Archuleta County Office of Emergency Management and Archuleta County Road and Bridge.
According to a Thursday morning PFPD Facebook post, "Pagosa Fire still has personnel on the fire in the Edith/Chromo area. The fire is in a stand of cottonwood trees. No structure are threatened and the fire is 90% contained. Crews from PFPD, Dulce, Jicarilla Apache, and the National Forest Service worked until late in the night to contain the fire. PFPD crews stayed overnight to keep containment. PFPD is sending additional personnel to the scene this morning to complete containment and mop-up operations. All other resources have been released from the scene."
According to the National Weather Service, wind and red flag warnings have ended and we now may contend with some winter weather in the mountains and sub-freezing temperatures Saturday morning.
Welcome to springtime in the Rockies.
