Colorado Firefighters Grateful For 'National System'
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - The Lefthand Canyon wildfire is more than 80 percent contained after burning 600 acres. Rain and snow in the foothills overnight helped fight the fire. Fire crews are hoping to get total containment soon.
With the added moisture, most of the state was under low or moderate fire danger on Sunday. The experts say that while it may seem like an unusually early fire season for us, it really isn't that unexpected.
The good news is firefighters now have new equipment on hand if they should need it.
"One of the key components is weather. Although we have the warm and dry ahead of us, we have a lot of resources in place and they have already made a significant progress on that fire," Steve Segin with the Interagency Fire Center said.
Segin said equipment came in from national agencies. The air tanker from Nevada will come in handy if crews need it in the near future with more warm weather up ahead.
"That is the beauty of having a national system. If we don't have the resources we need to today, we can get them from anywhere in the country and get them here rather quickly," Segin said.
In addition to having more equipment available, fire managers will use the latest fire as a preview to prepare for what is needed in the upcoming months. And even more positive news, winter isn't over yet.
"Really right now for what our main fire season is, we don't really know because we still have six, seven weeks of potential heavy snow ahead of us."
The weather is becoming a factor for multiple firefighting efforts. Crews in Louisville were supposed to conduct a controlled fire Sunday to clear some land for farming. That was canceled because of dry conditions and winds.
The cause of the Lefthand Canyon fire is still under investigation, but officials believe it was human caused.
