Fire crews and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office are continuing to work on containing a nearly 130-acre fire that broke out near Titan Court and Highway 85, now being referred to as the Airport Fire.
As of 11 a.m. on July 14, the fire was 90% contained.
“Today’s objective is to work on 100% containment,” Brian Willie, South Metro Fire Rescue’s public information officer, said on July 14.
Just after 2 p.m. on July 13, South Metro Fire Rescue responded to multiple vegetation fires near the highway. According to South Metro Fire Chief John Curtis, brush fire crews responded to the area of Highlands Ranch Parkway and Highway 85, along Titan Court and the southern corridor along Santa Fe that extends towards Louviers.
“During that time, Douglas County air resources were launched on the initial call and helped visualize some of the southernmost spot fires that were immediately identified,” Curtis said during a press conference on July 14.
Shortly after, the fire had been upgraded to an 2nd Alarm Wildland Urban Interface fire with multiple fires along the train tracks and spreading into open space, with one structure threatened.
Shelter was established at the Douglas County Fairgrounds as evacuations were issued for the town of Louviers east of Waterton Road. Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly said about 39 homes were evacuated.
Those evacuation orders were then lifted at about 7:30 p.m.
Curtis stated that no structural damage or injuries to community members or first responders were reported.
“We did place orders for both federal and state hand crews to which they are unavailable due to other incidents occurring in the state of Colorado,” Curtis said.
Including the Douglas County Helitack team, South Metro Fire Rescue, West Metro Fire Rescue, Castle Rock Fire, Franktown Fire, West Douglas Fire and more, there were more than 140 personnel on scene, both on the ground and in the air.
Two helicopters assisted in dropping water. The Douglas County Helitack team was in the air within 10 minutes of the fire breaking out and was able to make 300-gallon water drops about every five minutes.
On July 13, the Douglas County helicopter dropped about 26,400 gallons of water, Weekly said.
“Had we not had that fire Helitack team in the air within 10 minutes, this fire would have been far worse than it was,” Weekly said.
Additionally, multiple dozers were in the area helping to create fire lines.
Although there was a train in the area around the time of the fire and multiple spot fires along tracks, Willie and Weekly stated that the cause of the fire is undetermined and there is an active investigation underway.
Overnight, multiple crews worked to build containment and over the next few days, crews will continue mitigation work.