The Eightmile Fire near Cañon City that was sparked by lightning on Monday, and stayed small all week, blew up to 700 acres by Friday afternoon.
A pre-evacuation notice was issued for 16 residences in the Red Rocks subdivision around 9 p.m. Friday telling people to be ready to leave if necessary.
The Eightmile fire is burning on Bureau of Land Management property about 6 miles northeast of Cañon City.
“We’ve been on this fire since Monday,” Jackie Parks, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said Friday during a news briefing. “The terrain and dead and down fuels have made it hard, for sure.”
She did not provide a containment figure for the blaze, which has shut down Phantom Canyon Road between mile markers 4.5 and 12.
The Eightmile Fire was only half an acre in size as recently as Thursday but expanded to 100 acres by Friday morning before taking off to 700 acres by the afternoon.
Parks said the fire has been hard to reach from the ground because of the rough terrain, and maintaining firefighter safety has been the priority.
There are 24 firefighters assigned to the fire and four 20-person Hotshot crews have been ordered. BLM said late Friday that three helicopters, three single-engine tankers and two heavy air tankers had stopped flying for the night.
A Type II Incident Management Team will be in place Saturday at 6 a.m. to fight the fire.
Smoke from the Eightmile Fire was visible all the way from Pueblo and Colorado Springs, and is likely to impact low-lying areas.
In the meantime, a wildfire that ignited three miles west of Larkspur in the Pike National Forest on Thursday was reported to be fully contained as of Friday morning, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The lightning-caused blaze, known as The Storm fire, started around 2:30 p.m. Thursday and never threatened homes.
John Aguilar: 303-954-1695, jaguilar@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abuvthefold
The Canon City Daily Record contributed to this report
