Updated Tuesday, July 7th at noon: The Ferris Fire northwest of Dolores is now mapped at 56,927 acres and is 22% contained.
Dolores County Emergency Management says the current GO evacuation area includes everything east of County Road 15 between the Montezuma County line and County Road H.6. Officials have said the online evacuation map may lag behind the latest updates.
At a Friday night community meeting in Dove Creek, fire officials and county sheriffs said the evacuation map is only one piece of a larger story: a fast-moving fire in steep canyon country, with dry fuels, limited access and firefighters spread across a growing perimeter.
Dolores County Sheriff Don Wilson asked residents to stay out of closed areas and keep roads clear for fire crews. He said firefighters were traveling up and down local roads to protect homes and residents, and that extra traffic could slow their response.
Wilson also said Bureau of Land Management lands from Bradfield Bridge toward Box Elder Canyon were closed. He told residents that firefighters were working hard in difficult conditions and needed clear access to do their work.
The fire has also required coordination from surrounding counties. At the meeting, Montezuma County officials said there was no active fire in Montezuma County at that time, but county services were ready to assist if needed. San Miguel County officials said they were monitoring the northern edge of the fire and helping ranchers prepare in case livestock needed to be moved.
Fire officials said weather has been one of the biggest challenges. Incident meteorologist Rick Smith said the fire area had already gone through a week of Red Flag conditions, with very low relative humidity and gusty winds. He also warned that early this week could bring isolated thunderstorms with dry lightning and erratic winds, but little rainfall.
Smith said more helpful monsoon moisture may still be a week or more away.
Fire behavior analyst Brian Austin said the fire started in steep canyon terrain and moved quickly through pinyon, juniper, pine, ponderosa and oak. He said very dry overnight conditions allowed the fire to keep burning late into the night, instead of calming down the way fires often do when humidity rises.
Operations Section Chief Toby Cook told residents crews were using roads, dozer lines, retardant drops, aircraft and firing operations to slow the fire and protect private land and infrastructure. But he said aircraft are most effective when firefighters can follow up on the ground, and some canyon terrain is too steep and unsafe for direct attack.
Incident Commander Brad Pietruszka said those limits are central to the fire strategy. He said the priority is protecting private land, infrastructure and homes, but firefighter safety comes first. He told residents that crews cannot be put into canyon terrain if there is no safe way to get them back out.
Pietruszka said crews had treated the Dolores River as a trigger point for evacuations, power-line planning and other safety decisions. He also said a higher-level Complex Incident Management Team had been ordered because of the fire’s growing size and geographic spread.
But he cautioned that a larger team cannot change the weather or eliminate competition for firefighting resources across the region.
For residents, officials said the message is to follow current evacuation updates, stay out of closed areas and be ready to leave if conditions change.
Residents should continue checking Dolores County Emergency Management, Ferris Fire Information and Watch Duty for the latest evacuation boundaries and closure information.
