By Shannon Lukens.  Photo courtesy Shirley Cromer.

 

Photos courtesy Karina Browning.

A Zoom call press conference was held at 5 p.m. by the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office, led by Sgt. Nicholas Cordova with Moffat County Sheriff’s office and Commander Doug Conrad with Craig Police. Here’s what was said at the press conference.

Commander Doug Conrad with Craig Police

 

This story will be updated.

Video of the fire courtesy Shirley Cromer

 

UPDATE:

Sgt. Nicholas Cordova with the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office says the fire has been named the Thirteen Fire from the 1104 Fire. It began in the 700 block of East 13th Street. The initial call came in at 1:30 p.m. It started as a fire at a home and spread to now be a wildland fire. The cause of the fire is not known at this time.

 

Here’s Sgt. Cordova.

“We do not know the cause of the initial fire right now. Once we have that information, we will release it. It is now considered a wildland fire because it spread to grass areas in the area.”

There is no estimate of size or containment as of 5 p.m.

One firefighter has been transported to the hospital for a medical evaluation.

Ground and air assets are working on the fire.

No number yet of number of structures involved except for the initial structure which was a house. It has spread to become a wildland fire, after spreading to grass in the area.

There was an initial mandatory evacuation notice but residents can now go back to their homes. The evacuation was issued because of an initial threat of multiple homes. That initial mandatory evacuation was from East 13th Street to East 9th Street, from Washington Street to Bryan Way. There was a pre-evacuation notice for anything north of east 9th Street from Bryan Way to Haughey Road. Both of those have since been lowered to a pre-evacuation notice. People are being allowed back into their homes at this time. But please don’t use air conditioners that would pull smoke into houses.

Wildland fire teams continue to work on fire suppression.

No resources have been pulled from the Lee Fire and the Elk Fire to assist, according to Commander Conrad. He is also asking locals to stay out of the area until it is fully open.

Donations are not needed by community members, according to Sgt. Cordova.

Those agencies helping:

• Craig Police Department
• Moffat County Sheriff’s Department
• Hayden Police is helping with road closures
• Bureau of Land Management Wildland fires
• Moffat County Wildland Fire teams
• Colorado Parks and Wildlife, assisting with evacuations
• Craig Fire Rescue
• Moffat County Emergency Management

For more information, follow the social media Facebook pages for Craig Police Department or Moffat County Sheriff’s Office.