As firefighters in Colorado get first containment on Pearl Fire, officials say they know who started it

Firefighters in Colorado on Tuesday got partial containment for the first time on the Pearl Fire burning in northwestern Larimer County. The 128-acre fire is now 5% contained.

"Last night the temps were a lot cooler so that just allowed the fire to continue to burn in the heavies. We had no growth outside of the containment lines from yesterday," said Arapaho National Forest incident commander trainee Ty Grip during an update on the fire on Wednesday morning.        

The wildfire was human-caused, and Sheriff John Feyen said they have identified the person who started it. The sheriff said he isn't willing at this point to share any information about how it started.

Grip also talked about the strategy for fighting the fire, "So today those crews and engines are going to be in there strengthening the lines securing and doing any mop up that is needed, controlling some of the spot fires you see here on the map to make sure they are secure."      

Some evacuation orders were lifted and others were changed from mandatory to voluntary on Tuesday. There are still some areas under mandatory evacuation orders. The latest information about evacuations can be found at nocoalert.org.

The wildfire was first spotted on Monday. It is burning in the Crystal Lakes area not far from Red Feather Lakes and south of the Colorado-Wyoming border. It didn't officially grow from Monday to Tuesday, but there were concerns about strong wind gusts in the area late in the day on Tuesday.

"We are staffing this fire up pretty significantly, even though we know we have moisture coming in over the weekend," said fire incident commander Mike Smith. "It depends on which forecast you look at, but it does look like a pretty decent amount of moisture. So that's really going to help us as we move forward into the future of this event."

Aerial mapping on Wednesday will likely show a larger footprint than 128 acres for the fire.

Evacuees can go to the Livermore Community Church where an overnight evacuation shelter has been set up.

"We stand ready to protect this community," Feyen said in a prepared statement.

More than 150 ground personnel are working on the fire, and there are helicopters and planes working the fire as well. The water-scooping aircraft are getting water from Carter Lake west of Berthoud, so activities there are limited.