What a difference a week makes.<\/p>\n
It was a week ago to the day, on March 17, that the 24 wildland fire broke out, and Friday, March 20, a local disaster declaration was enacted retroactive to March 17.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Fremont County Commissioners were advised to allow the declaration, which may only extend seven days without renewal, to expire.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does look like we are very close to wrapping the county\u2019s involvement in the fire,\u201d said Fremont County Attorney Eric Bellas during Tuesday\u2019s board of commissioners\u2019 meeting.<\/p>\n
The action followed a detailed report from County Administrator Tony Carochi, in which he indicated the \u201c24 Fire\u201d is 24% contained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fire remained at approximately 7,385 acres,\u201d Carochi said, detailing a report from the on-scene fire commander.<\/p>\n
In order to advance from 0% containment, as reported Monday morning by the Fremont County Sheriff\u2019s Office, to 24% containment Tuesday morning, a lot of progress was required.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the result of hard work strengthening the control lines around the fire,\u201d Carochi said. \u201cGreat progress was made along State Hwy. 115.\u201d<\/p>\n
Displaced residents in El Paso and Fremont counties have been allowed to return to their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are still considered to be on a pre-evacuation status until we get an update,\u201d Carochi said. \u201cHwy. 115 is still closed. It is expected to be closed until Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fremont County emergency operations center remains open, Carochi said, and anyone with concerns related to the \u201c24 Fire\u201d should call the hotline at 719-276-7421.<\/p>\n
Commissioners each took a turn praising the community\u2019s response.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing, over the last few days, just to watch the outpouring of support from the community,\u201d Commissioner Kevin Grantham said. \u201cSome faith-based organizations were ready to offer a mobile kitchen, showers, and beds. The whole community was ready to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
He joined Carochi in praise of Fremont County residents being so reactive to needs related to the wildfire.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is impressive to see our communities come together so quickly,\u201d Grantham said.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Debbie Bell recalled her visit to the operations center.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see the level of engagement and seriousness those folks were taking is also impressive,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of our first responders have done an incredible job. Thank God it wasn\u2019t worse than it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
The quantity of individuals \u2013 both emergency responders and others \u2013 involved is staggering, Commissioner Dwayne McFall said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t the first time this has happened, and unfortunately, it won\u2019t be the last,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fire is still burning. It is not over yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
He encouraged residents to restrain from starting any fires, as he urged diligence.<\/p>\n
The reason progress has been made on the wildland fire in recent days, he says, is partially the drop in temperature.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey believe this fire was started by a truck,\u201d he said. \u201cThat tells you how dry it is out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office Facebook post reads that smoke could continue to be visible in the area as emergency crews fight the fire.<\/p>\n
Upgrade to fire restrictions<\/p>\n
Sheriff Allen Cooper has lifted Fremont County from Stage 1 fire restrictions to Stage 2, which adds several more restrictions to the county\u2019s burn ban.<\/p>\n
The essential differences between Stage 1 and State 2 restrictions are related to fire and campfire in developed areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sheriff has the ability to move through the stages [of restriction],\u201d McFall said. \u201c[Stage 2] is a little more extreme because of the dryness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. Drought Monitor places about three-fourths of Fremont County in abnormally dry conditions and one-quarter of the county in no drought level at all. El Paso County is also in Stage 2 restrictions, but other agencies have not lifted restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Bureau of Land Management] is in Stage 1,\u201d McFall\u00a0 said. \u201cThe U.S. Forest Service criteria is way out of wack. The whole place will burn down before they go into fire restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds, \u201cIf you didn\u2019t know, it is hot and dry. There is a drought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watching the legislature<\/p>\n
How much of a shortfall in revenues to expenses in the state budget there will ultimately be was a point of discussion by Commissioner Kevin Grantham.<\/p>\n
He notes the floating of deficits ranging from $700 million to $1.47 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they start making cuts, these are not simply tweaks to come up with a balanced budget,\u201d Grantham said. \u201cThere are going to have to be significant changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cuts, Grantham says, are of Democrats\u2019 \u201cown making that we\u2019re going to have to end up paying for \u2026 and by we I mean we the counties, we the cities.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other business\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2022 Michelle Boscia, the public health educator for Fremont County\u2019s Department of Public Health, presented the recently launched Traffic Crash Dashboard, detailed at the previous meeting by County Administrator Tony Carochi. Boscia reviewed various elements of the dashboard, including filters, during the presentation. The county discussed potentially creating an easier-to-find location for the dashboard.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Jim Sheridan, the Honor Flight president representing VFW Post 2788, joined commissioners in proclaiming Saturday, April 11, as Honor Flight of Southern Colorado Day in Fremont County.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Department of Human Services joined commissioners in proclaiming April as Fremont County Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Department of Public Health joined commissioners in proclaiming the week of April 6 as National Public Health Week.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Early childhood advocates joined commissioners in proclaiming the week of April 11-17, 2026, as the Week of the Young Child.<\/p>\n
\u2022 A special event alcohol permit was issued to the Royal Gorge Chamber Alliance for 4-8 p.m. April 9 at the Colorado Shed Co., 155 Shoop Dr. in Penrose. \u201cIt will be a good time to showcase a local business and see what they are doing,\u201d said Emmy Dennehy in her presentation to commissioners.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Michelle Boscia, Autumn Dever, and Linda Sand were recognized for their Perfect Performance Recognition award related to the vital records office. The award recognizes perfect recording performance in a variety of areas.<\/p>\n
Brian Porter is a special government and politics contributor to the Ca\u00f1on City Daily Record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What a difference a week makes. It was a week ago to the day, on March 17, that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[85285,943,138,140,139,85286,3607,251,223,29860],"class_list":["post-218550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-cau00f1on-city","tag-colorado","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-fremont-county","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-southeast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}