The final group of residents evacuated Friday due to the Lefthand fire were allowed to return their houses Saturday evening.
About 223 homes in the path of the Lefthand fire were evacuated, but only about a dozen were directly threatened by the blaze, which officials said grew to between 200 and 300 acres.
At a media briefing Friday, Cmdr. Rick Brough of the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office told reporters that there were about 100 firefighters and 20 fire engines on the scene. The structures immediately threatened were between Heil Ranch and Olde Stage Road. A heavy air tanker had arrived from New Mexico to make drops on the fire.
Evacuation orders were given via reverse 911 calls to homes in the Lake of The Pines, North Foothills Ranch and Lower Lefthand Drive. As of 4:40 p.m. Friday the Boulder Office of Emergency Management announced that subdivisions north of Lake of the Pines, including Lake of the Pines, had been reopened.
The fire was reported at around 10:30 Friday morning, and there was no word on what caused it. Lefthand Canyon was closed between James Canyon and U.S. 36.
“It’s mostly in the grass with occasional tree-torching, but it’s
moving fast,” said Jon Van de Grift, a professor at Metro State who
researches wind behavior during fires. He had just returned from the
scene of the fire, where he said he was measuring wind gusts at up to 50 miles
per hour Friday morning. He said the wind is erratic.
The fire started at around mile marker 37, about a mile up the canyon from Buckingham Park in Lefthand Canyon, Brough said, in the area of an old shooting range. It was on U.S. Forest Service land, but was moving toward open space land, he said.
Brough added the initial fire was only about one-eighth to one-quarter of an acre, but gusting winds made it spread through “spotting” — flying embers igniting adjacent areas.
Fire departments responding to the blaze include several that fought the Fourmile fire the week of Sept. 6, including Lefthand Canyon, Gold Hill, Sunshine and Fourmile.
Updates are being posted at http://boulderoem.com/emergency-status.
It was the second wildfire in Boulder County Friday.
The first was reported at around 4:45 a.m. near the Button Rock Reservoir outside Lyons and was expected to be contained quickly. There was a road closure at North St. Vrain Drive and Longmont Dam Road during that fire, but no evacuations were ordered.
