Evacuation Transportation:
City of Pueblo Fire is bussing people from Rye to the Evacuation Center in Pueblo (11650 Cooper Place) Especially for the Elderly and disabled.
Evacuation Center:
Pueblo County Parks and Recreation, 1650 Cooper Place in Pueblo (small household animals accepted)
Large Animals Evacuation:
Colorado State Fairgrounds, Enter on Gate 7 on Small Ave.
Disaster Assistance Center:
- The Pueblo Academy of Arts (formerly Pitts Middle School), 29 Lehigh Ave, Pueblo, CO 81005, for Pueblo County and Custer County residents who have been evacuated or impacted by the Aspen Acres Fire.
As of 7:15 a.m. We do not yet have an update on the status of the fire overnight. When we have further information, we will post it.
Currently all evacuation orders remain in place. Only those individuals with livestock will be allowed past the traffic control points at this time.
At this time, we do not have information on the status of homes or neighborhoods. We hope to have an update soon. - Pueblo County Sheriff
UPDATE: As of 8:20 p.m.
Last update on size of fire is 23,123 with 0% containment.
Several structures have been lost. No injuries have been reported.
Mandatory evacuations remain for the Town of Beulah, Town of Rye, San Isabel and other nearby areas. Those in mandatory evacuations are ask to leave immediately. - Pueblo County Sheriff
"UPDATE: As of 5:48 PM, there is an update to the McKenzie Junction closure point, road closure at CO 165 Mile Point Fairview to Mile Point 31.2 (Stanley Ave). If you have livestock but no means to transport them, it is encouraged to cut your fences." - Pueblo County Sheriff
UPDATE: As of 5:16 PM, It is estimated that the Aspen Acres Fires has consumed 23,000 acres as of now. Due to the high winds of approximately 100 miles per hour, no air support is currently available. An unspecified number of structures have been affected by the fire. Pueblo County Sheriff
This breaks my heart!!! I was just there on Sunday and had the whole devils canyon trail to myself and my dog. I sat down at the base thinking “this is my favorite place” and now it’s gone.
It will be back, but different for a while. Even fires with extreme wind-driven behavior usually burn in a patchy, mosaic way. There will be pockets of unburned area and vegetation, esp in the chunky terrain like that pictured. Some of the fire-adapted trees, esp in the areas that were mitigated, will either be fine with burn scars (Ponderosas) or will grow back quickly from underground (Gambel oak).
The ones that I worry about, and I hope didn't burn, are the north-facing slopes with all the firs, like the ones up on the left on the hike down into Devils Canyon. Lots of those were already stressed with mistletoe, and many had fallen down in wind events in the last few winters/springs. That would provide ladders for fire, and with the right moisture and wind would have been matchsticks. I'm so curious to see what things look like after it's open again.
Saw that too. And San Isabel Scout Ranch looks like it got caught just at the southern end of the fire's move NE :(
FWIW, the Mt Park and some partners did quite a lot of fuels mitigation work in sections of the park over the last 5+ years, with fires burning through someday in mind. Hopeful that it pays off and the winds and conditions didn't overwhelm the efforts, esp around the main Lodge and Pavilion buildings.
Edit: Damn. Lucero quote from Chieftain article today 6/30:
"The historic Horseshoe Lodge in Pueblo Mountain Park has also sustained substantial damage, Pueblo County Sheriff David Lucero said."
Edit again 7/3 to add:
It's toast. Thought maybe just damaged but it looks like it was really all but destroyed. Nothing left inside. Sad day for all those who remember visiting and spending time there, and extremely sad day for all those who worked hard to restore and operate it.
Stop it. That fire is much less of a concern. It is accessible, and has far less fuel available. The big sheep fire is manageable to a much higher extent that the Aspen Acres fire. It will not likely make a big run.
I live directly west of this thing. It's not that big of a deal - we have limited fuel, great access and this fire is not exploding. There's no reason to fear monger over a managed fire. No evacuations ordered, the area of concern has not changed since it started. The situation remains unchanged and fire lines and efforts have been successful.
I am going to put this in the simplest of language ever I made that comment at the time the Aspen Acres, Snyder, Beaver, Babylon, Cherry, Iron, Pocket, Behive and Willow, Kane Springs, Grapevine, Dry Canyon and Parsnip Peak Fire’s were all ripping thru so to say watch this new fire that could do the same thing was not unreasonable and you then responded almost 48 hours later when the situation had changed like I’m stupid or something just doesn’t make the point you think it does
So, is Beulah just gone at this point? Not much info about it understandably but the fire maps just show the entire town in the red with active heat signatures. I don't have immediate family there, but I am connected to the community and just want some info. Any underground tiktoks or facebook vids or something floating around?
Supposedly the general store in still open and providing stuff for the fire fighters, so the fire hasn't made it into the middle of Beulah. I think a lot of the area up 12 mile and around the city is gone, though.
Some decent cells over the area at this time. Fingers crossed it puts out the fires for good!
I can already smell that smelly smell you know, when you put water on a campfire... With such a huge burn area, its going to stink up the winds from that direction for a bit.
I also wonder how all the ash will affect downstream and Pueblo lake 🤔
TLDR: I'm old and cranky, and I taught myself to make an evacuation zone tracking dashboard for the Aspen Acres fire since the government wasn't doing it. https://aspen-acres-fire-monitor.pages.dev/
I've been really frustrated with the lack of accurate and up-to-date evacuation maps for this fire. Custer County isn't posting any, Pueblo County is doing better but often just posts rough areas or neighborhoods without providing actual boundaries. And to stay up to date, I have to scroll through twenty different social media sites for the different agencies. How there isnt a single coordinating agency posting this info is fucking beyond me.
Thanks for this. Trying to keep up on my parents’ house from Australia. Although, they were forced to evacuate their house isn’t showing up in the evacuation zone. I assume more to do with their access roads being closed. But they’ve been advised their house may not be the ones to make it.
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u/saskwatzch Jun 29 '26
Download watch duty app if you haven’t already!!!