DENVER (KDVR) — The fire burning thousands of acres in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park saw “rapid fire spread” Sunday evening due to a wind event in the area, officials said.
The South Rim Fire has burned more than 3,600 acres uncontained since sparking Thursday along the canyon’s rim as of Sunday night, and officials Sunday said the fire had started spreading into the canyon itself. The national park is closed, and several evacuations are in place in Montrose County due to the fire.
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The South Rim Fire comes as several other fires burn thousands more acres on Colorado’s Western Slope. The Sowbelly Fire along Escalante Canyon in the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area is more than 2,000 acres, and two fires in Mesa County are burning more than 1,000 acres near the town of Gateway.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Sunday made a disaster declaration for the four Colorado fires as well as the more than 10,000-acre Deer Creek Fire burning in eastern Utah just on the other side of the Colorado border.
