By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
The Schwachheim Fire that flared up on Sunday afternoon April 12, as of 5:00 p.m. Monday evening was estimated to have grown to over 450 acres according to a post by the Hoehne Fire Protection District whose district the fire is in.
The fire is located north of Lake Dorothy in Colorado, in rugged terrain and has burned into mostly grassy areas as earlier fires had burned most of the trees in the area. The fire is being moved in a northeasterly direction by the winds in the area. After surveying the area Interim City Manager Neil Segotta noted there was some creep back toward Lake Dorothy and Lake Maloya but most of the movement was to the northeast. Hoehne Fire is reporting zero containment as of this evening despite help from slurry bombers having made retardant drops on the fire along with helicopters dropping water on hot spots.
In the screen shot below the red dot signifies the reported location of the start of the fire according to WildWeb Incident reporting. That location is about a half mile north of Lake Dorothy. Colorado Governor Polis has issued an emergency disaster declaration for the incident which will allow fire fighters access to additional tools such as the slurry tankers, including access to other Colorado fire fighting state agencies.
Segotta and Public Works Director Jason Phillips have been here before and are preparing for the next step of erosion control and keeping the city water supply safe. City Commissioner Dan Campbell was also on the job as Raton Water Works Director during the Track Fire and others that occurred in the Lake Dorothy, Lake Maloya water shed and is well aware of the issues the city may face after the fire.
Phillips noted that erosion control will be needed on the dozer roads that have been made during the fire fighting efforts. Segotta noted that the city may be on the hook for most of the costs for the erosion control since the fire is located in Colorado and New Mexico will likely not help. How much help will come from Colorado is another matter all together.
