EL PASO COUNTY, COLO. -- A county transportation construction crew sparked a fire that burned more than 100 acres Wednesday afternoon, according to fire officials.
Around 2 p.m. crews were called to the fire in eastern El Paso County near Highway 94 and Curtis Road.
Fire officials said about 20 engines and about 75 people from 13 different agencies responded to the fire, which spanned the Ellicott/Falcon fire protection district boundary.
"Started in one, burned into another," Scott Campbell, Assistant Deputy Fire Marshal with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, said. "So they were both on the initial response. They called for a lot of help once they saw the smoke column building."
Fire officials said the fire was accidental, and a county transportation construction crew that was working on a culvert somehow started the fire. Campbell said the crew tried to put the flames out with extinguishers, but high winds spread the flames fast.
He said fire officials are still trying to determine exactly what ignited the flames.
"We're still trying to track that down," Campbell said. "We're not exactly sure. We're doing interviews with them to try to piece that together to figure that out."
A red flag warning was issued for Wednesday, and firefighters said they were standing by in their brush gear, waiting for what they considered an inevitable call.
"We are so dry, and there was so much wind, and in this field type it will move out at 25 to 28 miles per hour," Campbell said.
Nearly 150 acres burned as the fire moved rapidly through dry brush, coming dangerously close to several homes.
"It burned into the backyards on some of the homes over the hill over here, threatened six or seven directly with fire, and then there was probably another 50 that were in the path," Campbell said.
For some people who live nearby, it was a little too close for comfort.
"I am within 10 miles from here, and I left work early because I had heard about the fire, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't getting too close to my house," Tim McGruder, who purchased a home nearby about a year and half ago, said.
He said that since he moved in he's seen at least three fires that came within 10-20 miles of his home.
"It makes me pretty nervous," McGruder said. "This is not the first time that this has happened. I'm not sure what caused it yet, but you potentially hear about cigarettes being thrown out of vehicles, and it is a concern for a lot of us homeowners out here."
Fire officials said wildfires are hard to fight, especially in high winds, and crews try to contain the flames rather than stop them.
"About the best we can hope for is to get lateral to it and just keep flanking," Campbell said. "There's usually not enough of us, fast enough, to get turned on the head because then we're going against direct flames. We just can't put firemen out in front of that, so we try to get to the houses, we try to keep the sides contained so it doesn't grow out too big and get people out of the way and do point protection in the front."
But for homeowners surrounded by dry grass, some feel helpless.
"If you have any kind of property I mean you can't water all your property," McGruder said. "You can try to stay there until the fire department or police make you leave, but there's only so much you can really do."
Campbell said there are some things homeowners can do to minimize their risk of losing their home.
"Anything that you can do to keep the fuels, so the wood piles, the piles of stuff that happens around all of our homes, keep it out and away, because if the fire comes through the grass and gets into that heavier fuels that can be enough heat to actually catch the homes on fire," Campbell said. "Mow the grass, keep cleaned up around the house, clean under the decks, gutters, and the eaves are all cleared and clean, and there's no big fuel concentrations up next to the structure."
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