Firefighters are gaining ground on blazes burning around the Four Corners area, but flames continue to rage in the absence of significant rain. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Elkhorn fire north of Durango near Missionary Ridge is at some 320 acres and 0 percent containment. The possibility of slight showers isn’t expected to help much, as storms can also bring lightning and wind gusts. The 114-acre Rim Road fire on the Southern Ute Reservation is in better shape, with 25 percent containment. At the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Montrose County, the South Rim Fire is at more than 4,200 acres and 41 percent containment. It’s left much of the canyon’s south rim scorched, with multiple structures destroyed. The park’s north rim is to reopen Wednesday. Colorado’s largest fire, the Turner Gulch Fire northeast of Gateway in Mesa County, is at over 20,000 acres and 54 percent containment. The rugged and steep southwestern portion of the fire is still highly active. The Deer Creek Fire, which began near La Sal, Utah, then moved east into Colorado, is at close to 18,000 acres and 77 percent containment. And at the Grand Canyon’s north rim, the 45,000-acre Dragon Bravo Fire is at just 13 percent containment, a drop from the previous day after winds spread the flames.
Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
