Two fires that ignited Sunday afternoon in Routt County remain active, with containment holding on one while the other continues to expand.

The Fishhook Fire, located 1.5 miles north of U.S. Highway 40 just southeast of Steamboat Ski Resort on U.S. Forest Service land, spread to more than 333 acres and was zero percent contained as of Wednesday afternoon. Routt National Forest Service Public Affairs Specialist Aaron Voos said the fire is likely to be “long-term.” 

The Green Ridge Fire south of Stagecoach Reservoir remained 45% contained at 45 acres as of Wednesday morning, according to an update from the Colorado Incident Management Team. All previously evacuated zones for the Green Ridge Fire were returned to pre-evacuation status at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The Fishhook Fire: 333 acres, no containment 

With the growth of the blaze and difficulty of containment efforts, a national complex incident management team, with members primarily out of New Mexico and Arizona, is arriving in the area of the Fishhook Fire, Voos said on Wednesday morning. 

Forest Service officials will brief them through Friday before the incident management team takes over command of the fire on Friday morning. 

“That’s a pretty major shift in the fire management,” said Voss. “We should be able to bring in more people, more resources and lots of experience fighting fires, so that’s a good thing.” 

Forest Service officials also issued a smoke message Wednesday stating that light-to-moderate air quality impacts are expected in the city of Steamboat Springs from the Fishhook Fire smoke. 

The air quality for Wednesday and beyond is “highly dependent” on fire activity and new production of smoke, they added.  

On Tuesday afternoon, the fire began blowing toward the north and east, “burning up a whole bunch of fuel that it had kind of skipped over earlier,” said Voos. He noted that while the fire did not necessarily expand its perimeter on Tuesday, it burned up fuels already within the perimeter’s interior. 

By Wednesday morning, however, the fire’s perimeter expanded, though not “massively,” he added. 

Now, firefighters are dealing with what Voos called a “spot fire,” or a fire that doesn’t have clearly defined boundaries. 

“A lot of what we’re trying to figure out now is, OK, where has the fire spotted to? What are these next areas that we have to work on, and does it still work within the anchor point that we’ve already established in the containment lines that we were hoping to get in place?” he explained.

“There’s just that constant reevaluation based on the fact that this fire is spotting out in front of itself,” Voos added. 

Though U.S. 40 remains open, Voos said it could close at any point depending on fire behavior. The fire trended in the opposite direction from the highway yesterday but that could change. 

Steamboat Pilot & Today reporters spoke to three Forest Service firefighters on Wednesday in the Rabbit Ears Pass area. They said they were stationed along U.S. 40 to respond in case the blaze gets closer to the roadway. 

Regarding weather concerns, Voos said responders expect to start to see a pattern of afternoon thunderstorms — which could help firefighting efforts due to cloud cover and possible moisture, or potentially be detrimental should the weather pattern create erratic winds. 

“That’s just a variable we’re keeping our eye on and is pretty standard for fighting fires in the West,” he noted. 

As of Wednesday morning, over 110 personnel are responding to the fire, a number that will go “way up” through Friday as the complex incident management team assumes command. 

Routt County officials issued pre-evacuation alerts for two zones near the Fishhook Fire — SS-356 and SS-376 — on Tuesday afternoon in anticipation of a partial Routt National Forest closure that went into effect at 9 a.m. Wednesday. 

The boundary of the closed area is the Routt and Grand County border to the east along U.S. Highway 40, the national forest boundary to the west, the Routt and Grand County border to the south on Highway 40; and Forest Service trail 1101 to the north.

As of Wednesday morning, the cause of the Fishhook Fire remained unidentified, said Voos, who noted that responders have been focused primarily on safety and fire suppression.

The Green Ridge Fire: 45 acres; still 45% contained

The incident management team noted the lifted evacuation orders for zones OC-528 and OC-536 in their Wednesday update on the Green Ridge Fire, adding that although fire activity remains possible, they feel “it is safe for people to return home.” Both zones are downgraded to a pre-evacuation alert.

County officials advise residents in the area to be aware of changing conditions and prepare to leave again if fire activity increases.

Pre-evacuation alerts remain in place for 10 zones in the Stagecoach area: OC-521, OC-522, OC-523, OC-527, OC-528, OC-529, OC-531, OC-532, OC-536 and OC-537. 

Residents in pre-evacuation zones are encouraged to pack their car, keep a full gas tank and orient their vehicle in the direction of leaving. Residents are also encouraged to remain vigilant of their surroundings and stay up-to-date with official information sources as conditions change.

As of Wednesday, 108 firefighting personnel were battling the blaze. 

The Wednesday morning update also stated that “increased fire activity has been common when wind and terrain align” and that “concerns remain over the potential for flare-ups if gusty downslope/down valley late afternoons push the fire into unburned fuels.”

“Extremely dry fuels, coupled with an extreme heat warning, have created a volatile situation. Fortunately, high afternoon winds (Tuesday) did not materialize, which aided firefighting efforts,” the report stated.

“Crews are making good progress securing the perimeter of the fire, but hot spots are still burning in the timber understory in rugged terrain that is posing a challenge to access and completely extinguish,” according to the incident team’s update.

While Wednesday saw little moisture, the chance of “wetting rain” does increase on Thursday and Friday, according to the incident management team. 

Fourteen roads are closed in the Stagecoach area due to firefighting operations and should be used only by those evacuating and emergency responders, said Routt County officials. The full list of closed roads is at CO.Routt.CO.US/1071/Active-Emergencies.

The Green Ridge Fire threatens roughly 480 structures within three miles and had 20 homes under mandatory evacuation as of Sunday evening, according to a statement from the office of Gov. Jared Polis. 

That news release also reported that the governor had issued a verbal disaster declaration for the wildfire, which “activates the State Emergency Operations Plan and directs the Department of Public Safety and its Divisions of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) and Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC) to take responsibility for all response, recovery and mitigation efforts on the Green Ridge Fire.”

• To view evacuation zones in Routt County, visit tinyurl.com/4bss4p3k.
• To sign up for Routt County Alerts, visit tinyurl.com/knacnepd.

Steamboat Pilot & Today editor Trevor Ballantyne contributed to this article.