1 person dead in Colorado's Stone Canyon Fire burning near Lyons
Human remains were found at a home in the Stone Canyon Fire burn area north of Lyons. That's according to Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson. There is now 20% containment on the Colorado wildfire.
"We did also today discover human remains in one of the residences. So I can confirm for you that we do have one fatality associated with this fire. I'm not going to provide any more details because that's an active investigation that our detectives along with fire investigators will be conducting throughout the day," Johnson said in a Wednesday morning news conference.
"We express our condolences for the loss," Gov. Jared Polis said in an afternoon news conference. Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat who represents Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, repeated that message in the same conference.
Polis and Neguse said the wildfire has burned five homes. It's believed those are in the Eagle Ridge or Stone Mountain area.
"We're still in the process of trying to figure out exactly what things look like in the most impacted areas of the fire," Johnson said.
The fire started on Tuesday afternoon and it quickly grew to approximately over 1,540 acres. The most active area of the fire is on the northeast side, and it didn't grow much overnight in part due to lighter winds. The evacuation zone includes land in Boulder County and Larimer County. Part of the town of Lyons was included on Tuesday but all evacuation orders within the Lyons city limits are now lifted. Highway 36 is also open through Lyons, and Highway 66 between Longmont and Lyons is back open.
Boulder County is investigating the cause of the fire and have set up a tip line for people who might have any information about that. The phone number is 303-441-3674.
"That phone number is just if anybody has any information about how the fire started. We're going to treat this as an overall investigation to figure out exactly what happened but if anybody has information or tips about how the fire started, we want to gather that. We don't want to eliminate anything during the investigation," sheriff's spokesman Vinnie Montez said.
The burn area is approximately 8 miles to the south of the Alexander Mountain Fire west of Loveland.