Cameron Peak Fire receives snow, but it's unlikely to put it out

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7:45 p.m. update: The Cameron Peak Fire has received about 5 inches of "heavy, wet snow," according to Tom Barter, planning operations section chief from an update posted on Facebook Tuesday night.

Crews started planning areas and lines to attack the fire, with the cooler temperature and moisture temporarily muting growth. Barter said more resources are coming to help with the fire with some of Colorado's other fires getting under control.

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Original: The Cameron Peak Fire received about an inch of snow Monday night, and the forecast called for up to 12 inches or more by the time the system moves out of the area later Tuesday.

Monday night mapping of the fire showed the fire's acreage at 102,596 with 4% containment, according to the Tuesday morning incident command report. The fire, which is now the largest in Larimer County history and fifth-largest in Colorado history, was estimated at 96,462 acres Monday afternoon.

Heavy snow was expected to fall on the fire through Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by gusting winds of up to 40 mph that would create blizzard-like conditions. The overnight low Tuesday wass expected to reach into the teens and possibly single digits before a gradual warm-up the rest of the week.

That weather also will relieve Front Range residents of the recent poor air quality caused by the smoke fire, which turned the sky over Fort Collins an eerie hazy orange Monday, at least for a few days.

"This will give (firefighters) a good break after the last three days of really hitting it hard,'' fire spokesperson Paul Bruggink said. "This will dampen the fire and moisten some fuel loads, which will help. However, that will evaporate and melt off in the next few days and the fire will still be going. This is not what we call a season-ending event. We need a series of these to put this thing out.''

Bruggink's comments echo a measured response from other fire managers regarding the snow's impact on the fire.

At a town hall on Monday night, Boyd Lebeda, fire behavior analyst for the Rocky Mountain Incident Command Black Team, said precipitation is likely to "park the fire where it's at, saying no movement was expected Tuesday or in the days that follow. "But it would be premature to say the fire's out or that it's over," Lebeda said.

Just how beneficial the moisture will be depends on how much snow actually falls and how quickly temperatures warm and fuels dry out, Lebeda said, noting that typical Colorado falls are dry, warm and long.

"It's just not over, I'm sorry to say, but it's a great blessing for us to be able to get this precipitation," Lebeda said.

The weather change will allow fire crews go to into an offensive operation rather than a defensive one, Jon Teutrine, operations section chief, said at the town hall.

Monday's drastic change in weather prompted fire managers to move firefighters from camps to hotels in and around Fort Collins.

There are 840 personnel on the fire crew. Bruggink was unsure how many have been moved to hotels.

The Labor Day weekend saw the fire more than triple in size as near-record heat and dry and windy conditions fanned the flames, creating a flurry of activity and more evacuations.

Fire managers will use Tuesday's cold and snow to reassess strategy, especially as it relates to the Estes Park area, in case the fire makes a run at the eastern gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, according to the Tuesday incident report.

Over the weekend, the park added Old Fall River and Trail Ridge roads to closures that were already in place for the remote northern section of the park.

Monday saw the fire make "extreme crown and wind-driven runs and long and short spotting'', according to the incident report. This activity was pronounced along the south rim of the Poudre Canyon near Colorado Parks and Wildlife's fish hatchery, the north side of Colorado Highway 14 near Boston Peak as well as the Monument Gulch, Pennock Pass and upper Fish Creek areas.

To combat that volatility, fire managers ordered an additional 50 engines for structure protection groups.

The fire has now reached the 2012 High Park Fire footprint on West White Pine near the Pennock Pass Road (Larimer County Road 44H). The High Park Fire was previously the county's largest fire at 87,250 acres.

Some evacuations are relaxed

A few mandatory evacuations were downgraded to voluntary Monday. They are for:

• Crystal Lakes
• Red Feather Lakes
• Lady Moon
• Red Feather Highlands
• Shambhala Center
• Glacier View Meadows, all filings
• The area south of Colorado Highway 14 on County Road 27 from Stove Prairie Landing south to County Road 44H, including Stratton Park.

Other evacuations have been lifted for the following areas:

• Colorado Highway 14 from Stove Prairie Landing to Gateway Park
• County Road 52E (Rist Canyon Road), including Davis Ranch Road and Whale Rock Road east to County Road 27E, and County Road 27 south from County Road 44H south to Masonville and east to include Buckskin Heights

County assessing structure damage

The county is working to get damage assessment teams into the burn area to determine damage to structures, Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said Tuesday in a post on Facebook.

On Monday night, Smith said he had confirmed damage to structures in the Monument Gulch area. But in his Facebook post he said even fire crews were unable to get into that area due to dangerous conditions.

"We will assess that throughout the day. I don’t expect that information to be available any time today," Smith wrote.

He also said Monday that some structures near Rustic may have been damaged.

Information on structures in the Poudre Canyon will come sooner, he said, noting, "I want to be careful that we don’t get ahead of ourselves in the Poudre Canyon and release inaccurate information."

Reporter Miles Blumhardt looks for stories that impact your life. Be it news, outdoors, sports — you name it, he wants to report it. Have a story idea? Contact him at milesblumhardt@coloradoan.com or on Twitter @MilesBlumhardt. Support his work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.