By: Dana Coffield | The Colorado Sun
The Willow fire near Leadville grew by 900 acres overnight spurring mandatory evacuation of areas southwest of the city. Ouray 100 race canceled because of Gold Mountain fire.
The Aspen Acres fire southwest of Pueblo made another surge Sunday, bringing the total acres burned to 91,523, federal fire officials said, and making it the seventh largest wildfire on record in Colorado.
Authorities said Thursday the fire was human-caused but released no further details about its origin as it raced northeast from near the Aspen Acres campground across Pueblo County, where it forced the evacuation of the towns of Beulah, Colorado City, Rye, San Isabel and Wetmore.
Around 8:15 p.m. Sunday, the Fremont County sheriff issued a mandatory evacuation order for neighborhoods along Colorado Highway 67, including Fremont County Roads 15, 103 and 100, Newlin Ridge Road, the Los Pinos subdivision and Lock Mountain Estates, and the towns Coal Creek, Rockvale and Williamsburg.
A damage assessment team from Custer County went to the area where the fire started near the Aspen Acres campground June 29 to begin an inventory of lost structures, the county sheriff said in a Facebook post Sunday morning.
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