Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

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Jasonicfederation
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Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by Jasonicfederation »

There are media reports of a wildfire on the south side of Twin Lakes, CO.

The Leadville Airport WeatherCam -- South view loop shows this clearly, if you are able to view the loop for June 11th:

https://weathercams.faa.gov/map/-106.77 ... 11966/loop

I thought this was worth posting here, in case it impacts Hwy 82 this week.
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by Chicago Transplant »

Sounds like it is on the south side of the lakes, near the Interlaken Historic District, but they did close the Willis Gulch Trailhead.

https://www.denver7.com/news/wildfire/w ... icials-say
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by Jasonicfederation »

Yes, WED morning FIRMS image depicts it south of the reservoirs:

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/us ... .05,12.91z
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by cloudkicker »

Jasonicfederation wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2024 8:15 am Yes, WED morning FIRMS image depicts it south of the reservoirs:

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/us ... .05,12.91z
Yikes. That’s going to be awful if it wipes out the old resort. I only just visited it for the first time on a trail run last summer. It was so cool exploring the buildings and reading the history of the place.
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by dwoodward13 »

cloudkicker wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2024 8:18 am
Jasonicfederation wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2024 8:15 am Yes, WED morning FIRMS image depicts it south of the reservoirs:

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/us ... .05,12.91z
Yikes. That’s going to be awful if it wipes out the old resort. I only just visited it for the first time on a trail run last summer. It was so cool exploring the buildings and reading the history of the place.
The fire is both uphill and east of Interlaken already. Presumably the prevailing W->E winds and the topography will help.
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by aholle88 »

dwoodward13 wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2024 8:57 am
cloudkicker wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2024 8:18 am
Jasonicfederation wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2024 8:15 am Yes, WED morning FIRMS image depicts it south of the reservoirs:

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/us ... .05,12.91z
Yikes. That’s going to be awful if it wipes out the old resort. I only just visited it for the first time on a trail run last summer. It was so cool exploring the buildings and reading the history of the place.
The fire is both uphill and east of Interlaken already. Presumably the prevailing W->E winds and the topography will help.
It’s heading SE and is trying to hop the ridge into clear creek. The mountains are clear of smoke with the current wind direction but based on what I saw today I’d be most concerned about clear creek getting shut down and campers/hikers up that way getting trapped. It would be advised to stay out of clear creek/CR390 up to Winfield until this thing is out. Anything north of 82 and west of twin lakes is fine (other than the Willis closure)
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by madmattd »

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, it sounds like this started from an abandoned/improperly extinguished camp fire. https://denvergazette.com/news/wildfire ... c6244.html

Hopefully this can get contained soon, but with the dry weather of late, and hot temps, it may take a while. Hopefully this isn't a sign of the season to come...

443 acres, 0 containment as of this morning per the article above.

Keeping an eye on the Clear Creek situation that aholle88 mentions, it's a good point that the road may well get impacted this weekend. I tentatively have plans back by Winfield this weekend, but that's extremely tentative right now.
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by jrs1965 »

Getting close, crazy if it ends up burning a portion of the Leadville Trail 100 route...
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by justiner »

Well at least there's a convenient water source for those planes that scoop up massive amounts of water to pour on the fire, if they decide to go that direction.
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by justiner »

" It was determined that the fire originated from an abandoned campfire located about 60 yards from the Interlaken trail and 1.5 miles from the trailhead. This campfire was not properly extinguished and continued to burn. It is believed that the campfire was abandoned several days prior to its report on June 11, 2024. "
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 0818226034
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by Jasonicfederation »

justiner wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2024 10:57 am Well at least there's a convenient water source for those planes that scoop up massive amounts of water to pour on the fire, if they decide to go that direction.
It looks to me like they ARE going that direction, based on ADS-B data:
Twin Lakes fire 6-13, ADSB.jpg
Currently have a Huey and a Skycrane working on the fire.
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Re: Lake County fire near Twin Lakes (11 Jun 24)

Post by madmattd »

I've been informed by someone that called the Leadville Ranger Station that CR390 is closed due to this. Hopefully that gives firefighting the room they need to do their bit over the next several days.
Last edited by madmattd on Thu Jun 13, 2024 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.