Fire near Limon forced evacuations, but under control
A vegetation fire just southwest of Limon broke out Tuesday afternoon, reaching several miles in length and jumping Highway 181, according to fire tracking site WatchDuty.
An evacuation order was issued for the area from County Road 2T to County Road 22 and north to County Road 2W Tuesday afternoon as the fire moved toward the Lincoln County line, a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office alert said.
Shelter for evacuees is available at 130 C Ave. in Limon.
But the order was lifted by the Elbert County Office of Emergency Managment by 5:30 p.m., according to its Facebook post.
The fire, labeled the County Road 169 Fire by OEM, jumped the highway south of County Road 74 Tuesday afternoon. It started about noon and burned an estimated 5,000-10,000, according to the post.
“One home was in the initial Elbert County evacuation order when the fire started; unclear how many homes were in the Lincoln County evacuation area, but it is sparsely populated agricultural,” according to the Elbert County OEM. “Both the Elbert County and Lincoln County evacuations have been lifted.
It jumped County Road 197 around 2:30 p.m. As of 3 p.m., the fire was pushing into Lincoln County fueled by heavy winds, WatchDuty reports said.
Units arrived on scene around 12:30 p.m., WatchDuty updates show.
Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby posted photos of billowing smoke in the area on social media platform X, and said the flames are “from likely structures being impacted.”
Other area fire officials, including Aurora Fire Rescue and North Metro Fire, have sent crews to help fight the fire.
“Aurora Brush Engine 13 and Wildland 1 with five firefighters are responding to an immediate need mutual aid request for a wildland fire burning southwest of Limon in rural Elbert and Lincoln counties,” AFR reported on an X social media post.
Ellicott Fire Protection District said it was responding to the fire and called it a “very large wildland fire” on its Facebook account.
The Denver Gazette has reached out to both Elbert County and the Limon Fire Protection District but had not heard back by the time of this report.
The fire started amidst widespread high fire danger warnings across eastern Colorado into the plains. The area where the fire started is under a red flag warning.