Boulder County fire down to about 16 acres and 25% contained
A structure fire was reported in Boulder County Monday afternoon and now evacuations are being ordered nearby.
Fire officials asked people to avoid the area of 2900 Sunshine Canyon Drive. The Boulder Office of Emergency Management estimated the fire to be about 18 acres in size as of about 3:45 p.m. and just after 5:30 p.m., it was about 16 acres.
The #SunshineWildlandFire from campus pic.twitter.com/3hyNdJc2mL
— James Metcalf (@thermochronic) December 19, 2022
It's not immediately clear where or how the fire started, but there are multiple homes nearby, as well as Chromax Golf, a company that makes colored high-visibility golf balls.
The evacuation zone covers the area of Pine Brook Hill, generally just south and west of Fourmile Canyon Creek.
We have issued emergency an EVACUATION ORDER at 14:12:49 on 12-19-2022 due to Wildfire occurring in the area of 2900 Block of Sunshine Canyon. Click https://t.co/4vuYka1gDv for a map of the affected area and detailed information. pic.twitter.com/nDixXL5EKu
— BoulderCountySheriff (@BldrCOSheriff) December 19, 2022
The East Boulder Community Center, located at 5660 Sioux Drive, is opening as the evacuation site at 5:30 p.m. The Boulder County Fairgrounds is open for the evacuation of large animals and the Humane Society of Boulder Valley is taking small animals, according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management.
Multiple witnesses and commenters online noted that the fire appeared large based on the smoke.
A photo from the National Weather Service in Boulder also showed a large cloud of smoke coming from the mountain.