Latest Press Conference From Jeffco Sheriff Dept.

Lower North Fork Fire Update: 3/27/11, 1600

Additional Information is Available Regarding the Two Confirmed Fatalities.

Two confirmed fatalities have been found within the fire zone. The two bodies were found located near each other at the same address. One body was discovered inside the home, the other was found outside. The Coroner has positively identified the two individuals as a married couple: Samuel Lucas 77, and Linda Lucas 76.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office has a homicide team conducting a complete death investigation.

The Sheriff's Office is also partnering with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the circumstances surrounding the origin of the fire.

The Sheriff’s Office has also been notified of an additional unaccounted for adult female associated with the fire. We do know that she does live within the fire perimeter.

We have confirmed that 23 homes have been damaged by the fire. We are currently confirming addresses before notifying the owners of the homes.

The current affected acreage is estimated to be 4500 burned acres. We do have a SEAT (Single Engine Air Tanker) and a Heavy Tanker dropping retardant. We also have two Helicopters, from Buckley Air Force Base, dropping water on the fire.

Throughout the day we have seen continued and increased erratic fire behavior. Due to this behavior a pre-evacuation notice was sent to 6500 homes. Those home that were notified included homes located in City View, Hilldale Pines, Deer Creek Mesa, White Deer Valley, Homewood Park, Murphy Gulch, S. Deer Creek Canyon Rd., Jennings Rd., and Watson Gulch.

We have approximately 200 Firefighters currently on the fire. At this time we are still at 0% containment. Throughout the day firefighters have been taking advantage of ‘targets of opportunity’ to control the fire near homes.

Earlier in the day the fire strategy was more aggressive but due to the erratic nature of the fire responders had to revert back to a defensive strategy. This strategy prioritizes structure protection over aggressively suppressing the fire.
Structure protection thus remains the primary focus tonight and will remain so into tomorrow.

We have not been fighting this fire alone! The Incident Command Post has been overwhelmed with food donations. We are very grateful for the generous donations that have come from across the community. Due to the overwhelming response, however, we are requesting that the community refrain from bringing any additional donations to the command post.

Please stay tuned for additional updates. We will continue to use this blog site to post new updates. We will also continue to use @JeffcoSheriffCo to post updates on Twitter.

Posted by Jeffco Sheriff at 4:05 PM

Lower North Fork Fire Photos

Photos were taken at about 1:50 PM

http://jeffcosheriff1.blogspot.com/2012 ... -1600.html

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/30 ... etail.html

7 News has a good wrap up until we get the official one from Jeffco Blog.

Lower North Fork Fire Update: 3/28/12 0830
A PIO will present a citizen briefing at W. Jefferson Middle School at approximately 9:00 AM.

Overnight the fire was relatively stable. Fire crews made progress through the night in protecting structures. Today’s strategy is to gain containment around the fire while continuing to protect structures.

Today’s fire behavior is expected to be similar to yesterday but with slightly higher winds. The winds could result in more robust fire activity. The fire will also most likely become more intense as the temperature rises throughout the day. The fire has continued to exhibit a tendency to start spot fires in a wide area.

Our Incident Management Team Liaison Officer will be working with representatives from Century Link and Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) to evaluate current damages and to begin formulating a plan to restore services to affected areas.

The fire will be actively engaged from the air today. The air support resources available today include two Heavy P2V Tankers and one SEAT plane dropping fire retardant and four helicopters conducting water drops. These aircraft will be supported by additional command and observation planes. Additional resources are being ordered.

The weather forecast for today show winds becoming increasingly southwest with speeds in the 8-14 MPH range with gusts up to 20 MPH specifically around the higher ridges. Humidity is expected to drop relatively low by mid afternoon to around 10% or less.

The new command post location, at Conifer High School, is up and running. The Red Cross continues to host the evacuation shelter located at West Jefferson Middle School. A PIO will present a citizen briefing at W. Jefferson Middle School at approximately 9:00 AM.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office will continue to man road blocks around the fire perimeter. At this time we are not allowing anyone back into the evacuated regions. We ask that you continue to avoid to area around the fire in order to allow for quick and safe traffic for emergency vehicles.

http://www.jeffcosheriff1.blogspot.com/