Plane crash starts wildfire, puts towns of Gold Hill, Ward on evacuation notice
For an hour, authorities had the residents of two small foothills towns in Boulder County ready to evacuate after a plane crash in Lefthand Canyon ignited a wildfire Sunday morning.
"Take proactive measures and be prepared to evacuate," the Boulder County Sheriff's Office stated in a social media alert released at 10:40 a.m.
A small plane crash has sparked a wildfire near the 10,000 block of Lefthand Canyon Dr. An EVACUATION WARNING has been issued for the surrounding area, including the towns of Gold Hill and Ward. Take proactive measures and be prepared to evacuate. https://t.co/4vuYka1gDv pic.twitter.com/H1peYr0aWh
— BoulderCountySheriff (@BldrCOSheriff) July 17, 2022
An "all clear" messaged was released at 11:40 a.m. Though fire crews were still working on the clearing "hotspots" at the fire scene, the threat to nearby residents had been "mediated," per the sheriff's office.
The plane crashed in the 10000 block of Lefthand Canyon Drive. A resident "saw or heard" the plane go down, BCSO's Carrie Haverfield told CBS4, and called 9-1-1 at 9:40 a.m.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Authority both identified the crashed plane as a Cessna T337G. The FAA said four people were on board, but the sheriff's office has only confirmed a single fatality at this time. The Boulder County Coroner's Office is responding to the scene.
In a Twitter message, the U.S. Forest Service stated it had firefighters at the scene. It reported the wildfire to be one acre in size.