West side of Aspen Acres poses greatest challenge to get fire under control 9%
By Justin George6%
7/11/2026, 4:59:04 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 20 faulty reasoning types, including Ambiguity (Equivocation), Overconfidence Bias, and Biased Writer Voice, with Appeal to Authority as the most egregious example at 18.5% saturation with 255 hits. Analysis detected 1,515 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,375 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 25.4% and a BS Rank of 9% (20,046 of 21,886 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 91.60% of the article peer group.
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Fire crews gained some ground overnight in containing the Aspen Acres fire , the fire’s Incident Management Team reported Saturday morning.
More than a third of the fire, which has been burning since June 29 in Pueblo and Custer counties, has been contained.
Containment jumped from 28% to 34% overnight.
Friday night, fire crews focused on cooling hot spots near buildings and the Mingus Ranch area.
Bulldozer-dug containment lines are being built on the northwest and southwest sides of the fire.
Firefighters are creating control burns between those lines and the wildfire, creating an even larger buffer to stop the blaze from advancing west.
As temperatures and winds increased Friday afternoon, fire officials said, the fire spread on the west side near North Muddy Creek south of San Isabel and north of Rye.
Firefighters are expecting the fire to grow even more in that area because of the amount of fuel in the fire’s path.
Saturday the forecast will be hot and dry with light winds, low humidity and a chance of an afternoon thunderstorm, the Alaska Complex Incident Management Team No. 1 said in a statement.
A Skycrane lifts off with its 2,650-gallon payload of water in Beulah July 10, 2026.
The helicopter is part of a fleet aircraft enlisted to fight the Aspen Acres fire.
It’s able to fill its tank via a draft hose in less than a minute.
(Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
The west side of the Aspen Acres fire poses the greatest challenge to firefighters because of its rugged terrain and dry fuel, fire officials said.
Crews and resources were rerouted to the west and southwest side of the fire on Friday, and air support involving helicopters with water-scooping buckets and airplanes dropping fire retardant was expected to assist once again on Saturday.
Fire officials are using drones with heat detectors to direct fire resources and find hot spots.
“Little heat was detected near Beulah on Friday, but work remains on containment lines to protect the community from potential flare-ups in the interior of the fire area,” the statement said.
“The Aspen Acres area has also cooled, but hot spots were detected and targeted near Bishop Castle.”
The fire is the nation’s second largest wildfire, having burned 97,505 acres.
More than 1,900 firefighters and support staff are attending to it.
Fire officials reported opening a new fire management operations base camp at a Custer County school campus in Westcliffe, where more than 200 firefighters are based.
Pueblo County officials have said the Aspen Acres fire has destroyed more than 250 homes and four commercial buildings while a private aerial imagery company’s analysis suggests the Aspen Acres fire may have destroyed about 780 structures across Pueblo and Custer counties.
Evacuation orders and pre-evacuation warnings remain in place across Custer, Pueblo, Fremont and Huerfano counties.
For more information on evacuations, closures and disaster assistance in Pueblo and Custer counties, call the Joint Information Center at 719-583-4640.
Custer County Sheriff Richard Smith will host a community meeting for Custer County residents in Westcliffe at 7 p.m.
Sunday at the Wet Mountain Valley Saddle Club Rodeo Arena, 90 County Road 241.
The meeting will be broadcast on Facebook .
The National Interagency Fire Center map shows wildfires burning in Colorado.
Nearly 20% of the Ferris fire has been contained.
The wildfire continues to burn in and around Dolores Canyon, north and west of the Dolores Canyon overlook, fire management officials said in a statement on Saturday.
“While the fire grew slightly, it remained on the eastern side of Dolores River around Box Elder Campground and is still within the planned primary control lines,” officials said.
The Ferris fire near Dolores had burned 63,271 acres as of July 11, 2026.
Federal incident managers said they set up a mobile retardant base was established at Dove Creek Airport to support fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters attempting to build and stregthen fireline along the rim of Dolores Canyon.
(InciWeb photo)
Firefighters continued to build containment lines along the rim of Dolores Canyon.
Airplanes and helicopters dropping fire retardant are pushing the blaze away from those buffers.
The fire has burned 63,271 acres as of Saturday, making it the 10th largest wildfire on record in Colorado .
Aspen Acres is the seventh largest.
On the northeast portion of the blaze, hotshot crews and heavy machine operators continue to dig lines from Benchmark Lookout north to Willow Draw.
Saturday, the crews and operators will continue their efforts there and along the edge of Dolores Canyon.
Fire officials say the forecast calls for another hot, dry day with record high temperatures between 90 and 100 degrees.
Relative humidity will fall into the single digits by Saturday afternoon with winds gusting out of the west to northwest at 25 mph.
Saturday night, stronger winds from the southeast could gust near 40 mph.
Nearly 850 firefighters and support staff are attending to the Ferris fire.
Just 6% of the Gold Mountain fire has been contained.
The fire has burned 34,848 acres northeast of Ouray.
Nearly 1,000 firefighters and personnel are strengthening and securing fire containment lines around buildings while focusing much of their efforts around Cimarron Ridge and nearby communities, where fire officials said the fire has grown.
Threatened by the Gold Mountain fire, cowboys at J Bar M Ranch in Ouray County guided almost all of their 300 cows down from high country grazing land.
An estimated 90% of that land has burned so far.
(Courtesy of Andrew Bowles)
“Perimeter growth occurred mainly in the northernmost portion of the fire near Nate Creek,” incident commanders said in a statement.
“The fire’s growth toward Cimarron Ridge produced significant heat.
The northwest edge was burning actively but slowed when it reached the aspen stands.”
Numerous spot fires flared Friday on the east side of Cimarron Ridge.
Smoke settling in the west fork of the Cimarron drainage helped keep fire behavior low until the afternoon.
“Firefighters made good progress protecting homes and other values at risk,” the statement said.
“Structure protection remains a top priority.”
As winds shift Saturday, the fire may grow in the Nate Creek areas, as well as along the northern and northeast portions, fire officials said.
Air support is helping fire crews on the southern end.
“We continue to have a presence down on the southern edge,” Jeramy Dietz, operations sections chief of Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team No. 3, said in a video update.
“Up above Bridal Veil (Falls), we have a helitack crew that will be going in, monitoring some of that country over into the wilderness area, working with aircraft and (water) buckets that we have.”
The Willow fire has burned 5,352 acres just west of Leadville.
It is 22% contained, according to the Southwest Area Complex Incident Management Team.
Fire crews are working all weekend establishing and fortifying containment lines along both the northern and northeastern edge of the fire, focusing on protecting buildings and power lines.
They continue to work in the Trout Creek subdivision, the Twin Lakes area and the Pan Ark area, using heavy equipment to dig lines south of the fire’s perimeter.
Structures at Lake Fork Ranch at the foot of Mount Massive had so far been spared by the Willow fire near Leadville on Friday.
Firefighters are continuing work to mop up and secure fire lines in this area, which includes the Leadville National Fish Hatchery and Colorado Outward Bound School area.
(Cheney Orr, Special to The Colorado Sun)
“Firefighters are continuing to mop up and secure (areas near) the Leadville National Fish Hatchery and Colorado Outward Bound School areas,” the team said in a statement.
A red-flag warning remains in effect for the region, as fire officials expect weather conditions to stay warm and dry this weekend and into next week.
Saturday’s temperatures are expected to reach near-record highs.
Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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