Pearl Fire burns in Colorado mountains, forces evacuations in Crystal Lakes area of Larimer County

A new wildfire in the Colorado mountains called the Pearl Fire forced evacuations on Monday. The evacuations were ordered for the Crystal Lakes area northwest of Red Feather Lakes in Larimer County.

In order to ensure resources and support to the local response, Gov. Jared Polis gave a verbal declaration of disaster emergency for the fire to make multi-agency assistance available.  

The evacuation area includes Larimer County Road 86 and County Road 170 as well as Crystal Lakes north of Black Mountain to the Colorado-Wyoming state line. 

According to the Larimer County Sheriff, air resources as of Monday afternoon included three air tankers and three helicopters. Helicopters were making water drops and planes were dropping fire retardant on the fire. 

The fire had burned 138 acres as of 4 p.m. Monday. It was zero percent contained with 50 personnel working the fire. More resources have been ordered. 

The evacuation center opened at Livermore Community Hall located at 2044 W. County Road 74E will close at 6 p.m. An overnight evacuation center will open at Cache La Poudre Middle School, located at 3515 CR 54G, Laporte at 6:30 p.m.

What caused the Pearl Fire has not been determined. The first notifications of the blaze were issued by Larimer County authorities shortly after 11:30 a.m.

As of early Monday afternoon, there were no reports of injuries.