Wildfire Strikes Twice in a year for College town

Boulder County, Colo. - A Colorado wildfire south of Boulder that forced nearly 20,000 people to flee was listed at 35% contained by Sunday afternoon and most evacuation orders had been lifted. Incident Commander Mike Smith says the fire burned to within 1,000 yards of residences, but fire retardant and other prep work helped save the homes.

The fire is burning near an area where more than 1,000 homes were destroyed by a fire pushed by strong winds in late December. That fire was called the Marshall Fire, and Smith says there were lessons learned.

Fire crews were also able to use aircraft to fight the fire, laying down lines of fire retardant near homes in the rolling hills south of the college town, he said.

The evacuation area was reduced late Saturday to cover about 1,700 people and 700 residences, down from about 8,000 homes earlier in the day. Fire managers will allow more people back into their homes Sunday as it becomes safe, officials said.

Work on Sunday was focused on reinforcing the fire line and making sure the fire doesn't burn toward the city of Boulder or down toward Eldorado Canyon, Smith said. Crews were working to corral the fire into an area of rocks and snow.

"One of the things we learned from the Marshall Fire was how to rapidly escalate and integrate multiple agencies and get them together. And I think we had a much more seamless on this one. We continue to learn from every one of these fires and we certainly saw an improvement."

Fire evacuee Elliott Bloom said, "The Marshall Fire's kind of on the tip of everyone's tongue, so I think that's kind of fresh in everyone's mind and that's kind of why everyone took this very seriously."

Smith voiced concern for the season ahead as well saying, "I think this is just a sign of the way things are going to go. And so, we continue to work on our planning processes. We continue to work on our team building and work with our partners to make sure that we're as dialed as we can be. So, you know, we're feeling good, but we're, we're a little nervous about the upcoming season."

Saturday's fire started around 2 p.m. and burned protected wildland near the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder police said.

Authorities have called it the NCAR fire, and its cause is not yet known, although officials have found the spot where it was believed to have started, Smith said.