Prowers County Wildfire Contained, Burned 5,604 Acres

Description: The information below comes from Prowers County Rural Fire Chief Staffon Warn and Prowers County Sheriff Sam Zordel.

10:00 am

Prowers County Wildfire Contained, Burned 5,604 Acres

On March 22nd 2023, at 3:58 pm, Prowers County Rural Fire was paged to a grass fire on US Hwy 50 east of Lamar at mile marker 443. The first units on scene reported a grass fire moving northeast from US 50 toward the Arkansas River, County Road 19, and CO Hwy 196. Wind speeds at the time were 32 MPH gusting to 47 MPH out of the southwest. The fire grew quickly due to the dry and windy conditions, but was eventually fully contained to the Arkansas River bottom by 1:30 am on March 23rd.

A Code Red was issued by Prowers County E911 to alert residents in the area of the fire. 3 outbuildings, including corals, were lost in the fire, but we have received no reports of animal losses. 3 homes were threatened, but did not burn, and no injuries have been reported. Lamar Light and Power and Southeast Colorado Power suffered losses of utility poles around CO 196, which left some residents without power. The Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control will fly over the fire today to look for hotspots and map the burn area, but we currently estimate around 5604 acres were burned.

Several agencies assisted with this fire, including:

Prowers County Rural Fire - 7 apparatus and 8 personnel

Holly Fire District - 3 apparatus and 6 personnel

Holly Ambulance - 1 ambulance and 3 personnel

Granada Fire - 2 apparatus and 3 personnel

Lamar Fire Department - 1 apparatus and 2 personnel

Lamar Ambulance - 1 ambulance and 2 personnel

Wiley Fire District - 2 apparatus and 4 personnel

Hasty/McClave Fire District - 3 apparatus and 4 personnel

Prowers County Road & Bridge - 4 maintainers, 1 dozer, 2 tankers, 1 wheeled loader

Prowers County Sheriff's Office

Colorado State Patrol

Colorado Division of Wildlife

Colorado Department of Transportation

Prowers County E911

Numerous local farmers assisted with tractors, blades, discs, and water trucks.

Prowers County thanks our Rural Fire volunteers, Road & Bridge employees, Sheriff's Deputies, the assisting regional agencies listed above, and the residents of Prowers County who swiftly responded to control this fire and save lives and property.

Prowers County was under a red flag warning from the National Weather Service in Pueblo at the time the fire started. To review more information on Red Flag Warnings, please visit: https://weather.gov/pub/fire and for more information on Prowers County Rural Fire, including Prowers County fire ordinances, please visit:

prowerscounty.net/departments/rural fire department

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Photos by Hasty/McClave Fire Protection District

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