Smoldered grass nearly touches the Table Mesa neighborhood the day after the NCAR fire began. March 27, 2022. (Zoe Schacht/CU Independent)
Officials believe that the NCAR fire has burned 189 acres of land since the fire started on Saturday, March 26. In a press briefing held on Sunday morning, officials were cautiously optimistic about their efforts.
Dispatchers first began receiving reports about the fire, which started in Bear Canyon just south of the NCAR Laboratory, around 2 p.m. Evacuees clogged city streets and the smell of smoke was pervasive in the air.
Boulder Fire-Rescue Public Information Officer Marya Washburn said approximately 1,629 people fell under revised evacuation orders, which the city updated late Saturday evening. Previously, 19,000 people had been ordered to evacuate their homes.
Marya Washburn, the public information officer for Boulder Fire Rescue speaks during a press conference at NCAR in South Boulder. March 27, 2022. (Zoe Schacht/CU Independent)
Mike Smith, the incident commander for the Boulder Incident Management Team, said that firefighters believed 21% of the blaze had been contained as of Sunday morning.
“Yesterday, we had a great day as far as our initial attack went. We had over 200 firefighters from over 30 agencies (on the scene),” he said.
The City of Boulder used a new alert system, which they unveiled recently, to let residents know they should evacuate. However, Smith said, that alert went out to more people than they expected at first.
“Because the way (the alert system) works, it actually went a little bit bigger than where we thought it was gonna go. We know there’s a margin of error when we put that out,” he said.
Smith said that the IMT has not heard any reports about missing or injured people. Firefighters had also not lost any structures by Sunday morning.
Fire Rescue vehicles park outside of NCAR near the NCAR fire’s point of origin. March 27, 2022. (Zoe Schacht/CU Independent)
Between 100 to 120 firefighters are expected to be combating the NCAR fire on Sunday, with support from multiple tanker airplanes and a helicopter.
Smith said that emergency services would reevaluate the evacuation zones later in the day, but that information would likely not come before 6 p.m. on Sunday.
An updated forecast for the area shows that winds will be blowing northwest. That’s not what firefighters had hoped for today.
“Initially, the forecast was for us to have southwest winds which would have been very favorable,” Smith said. “The forecast for today is actually that we’re going to have northwest winds and west winds, which are a little less favorable, but the wind speeds aren’t that high.”
While firefighters believe that things might be looking up now, Smith said he’s concerned about the future.
“We’re nervous about the season coming up. When you look at the long-term forecasts for the upcoming season, I think this is just a sign of the way things are going to go,” he said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Zoe Schacht contributed to this story.
Contact CU Independent Managing Editor Henry Larson at henry.larson@colorado.edu.
