Stone Canyon Fire destroys at least 1 home in Colorado, part of Lyons now under evacuation order

A new wildfire on Colorado's Front Range has destroyed at least one house and evacuations are in place in part of the town of Lyons as well as rural areas to the north. The wildfire is called the Stone Canyon Fire and it's located in the Eagle Ridge area. The latest information provided by Boulder County officials is that the fire is roughly 85 acres and moving north and northeast with the potential to grow.

Since 2 p.m. Tuesday and for many hours afterwards, a large plume of gray and black smoke could be seen from Eagle Ridge and Stone Mountain.

Aerial resources were quickly ordered for the fire and planes dropped slurry on the blaze soon afterwards. Those resources were diverted from the Alexander Mountain Fire.

Video from CBS Colorado's news helicopter showed one house on the mountainside on fire. At least one other home was also located nearby and appeared to be threatened by the flames.

The initial evacuation was ordered at 1:53 p.m. As of 5 p.m. it includes all homes to the north of Main Street in the Town of Lyons, plus areas around Indian Mountain, stretching into Alexander Mountain Fire evacuation areas. All roads north of Highway 36 are closed. The evacuation zone includes land in both Boulder County and Larimer County.

More information about the evacuation zone is posted at www.BOCO911Alert.org.

An evacuation center for affected residents has been set up in the Exhibit Building at the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont at 9595 Nelson Road. People who are evacuating large animals can also take them there.

The wildfire is burning approximately 8 miles to the south of the large Alexander Mountain Fire which started on Monday. That fire, located west of Loveland, has mandatory evacuations in place and Highway 34 through Big Thompson Canyon is closed.

So far there's no word on how the Stone Canyon Fire started. There have also been no reports of injuries.