The Lewstone Fire started Saturday, Aug. 22 around 3:30 p.m. It is burning about 15 miles northwest of Fort Collins.
#LewstoneFire - Air resources and ground crews working hard and continue to make progress holding the fire at 165 acres and now 12% contained.
— Larimer Sheriff (@LarimerSheriff) August 23, 2020
KUNC's Karlie Huckels spoke with Jered Kramer, spokesman for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office, for the latest update.
Interview Highlights:
These interview highlights have been lightly edited for clarity.
Karlie Huckels: Another fire has started in Northern Colorado just 15 miles northwest of Fort Collins. So tell me a little about what you've got going on this morning.
Jered Kramer: So this morning, crews are actively working a fire in the area between Rist Canyon and Poudre Canyon near Lewstone Drive. The fire is about 140 acres and as of this morning at 0% containment, but we expect to see some numbers put up toward that throughout the day.
Going forward, is this going to be something like the Cameron Peak Fire that has a lot of fuel that's going to be building quickly? Or is do you think it's going to be something that will be able to get some containment on today?
Given the size and location of the fire, I anticipate we'll see containment being actively established around it. Fire danger is still extremely high today; we'll have fire weather that is not necessarily the best for fighting fires so the situation can change rapidly, but we expect to see some positive developments against this fire today.
If we take a look at the weather over the next few days, how is that going to impact the conditions?
Fire danger is still extremely high in our area. It has been hot and windy and very, very dry. We encourage all residents to exercise the utmost caution with any activity, outdoors things that normally would not necessarily present a large fire risk. Absolutely now we need everybody to obey fire restrictions. No open flames, no outdoor smoking. Avoid closed areas, avoid evacuation areas — we need our roads clear so that our crews can move freely and the last thing we need right now is to have to rescue people from an active fire area.
Updates for the Lewstone Fire can be found on the Larimer County Sheriff's Office's Twitter page.
