The Denver Post10%
Colorado wildfires: Mandatory evacuations called in Aspen Acres fire for parts of Custer County 7%
By Lauren Penington5%
7/20/2026, 4:15:43 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 14 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Ambiguity (Equivocation), and Framing Effect, with Appeal to Authority as the most egregious example at 8.2% saturation with 68 hits. Analysis detected 487 faulty-reasoning hits from 834 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 23.6% and a BS Rank of 7% (17,892 of 19,112 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 93.60% of the article peer group.
Fire activity in the Aspen Acres fire forced new mandatory evacuations in Custer County on Monday, the same day a memorial procession carried the pilot who died while fighting the Gold Mountain fire near Ouray from Montrose to Denver International Airport.
Nicholas Dale, a 56-year-old federally contracted fire aviation pilot from Sooke, British Columbia, died after his helicopter crashed into the Silver Jack Reservoir in southwestern Gunnison County on July 12.
He was the fourth firefighter to die while battling Colorado’s summer wildfires.
Three firefighters — Emily Barker, 38; Nick Hutcherson, 27; and Sydney Watson, 27 — were killed two weeks earlier when they were overtaken by flames on the Western Slope as two fires from Utah converged with two fires in Colorado, together forming the Snyder fire.
As of Monday, that wildfire was 30,202 acres and 98% contained, fire officials said.
The Gold Mountain fire, one of several still-active fires burning across Colorado, had consumed just over 38,000 acres at that time — Colorado’s 19th-largest wildfire on record, according to state officials.
Dale’s memorial procession started in Montrose at 7 a.m.
Monday and was expected to reach DIA around noon, according to Gunnison County officials.
Alpine Bank, headquartered in Glenwood Springs, is accepting donations for Dale’s family to an account it seeded with $10,000 at alpinebank.com/goldmtnfire.
**Jump to:** Aspen Acres fire | Gold Mountain fire | Elk fire | Willow fire | Air quality alerts
Colorado’s largest active wildfire has consumed nearly 101,000 acres and was 61% contained, according to a Monday morning update from fire officials.
That’s more than 157 square miles.
The 100,756-acre Aspen Acres fire remains the seventh-largest fire in the state’s recorded history, behind the 2018 Spring Creek fire that consumed 108,045 acres, according to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.
Fire officials have said the Aspen Acres fire has destroyed close to 900 structures, at least 337 of which are homes, according to law enforcement in Pueblo and Custer counties.
The wildfire’s growth has slowed in recent days as crews steadily increase containment around the flames.
Mandatory evacuations remained in effect Monday for parts of western Pueblo and eastern Custer counties.
On Monday afternoon, the Custer County Sheriff reinstated mandatory evacuation for part of eastern Custer County, zone C4, and canceled a planned reentry for another zone, C3, that was planned Tuesday morning because of fire activity.
In Pueblo County, its Sheriff’s Office ended the mandatory evacuation order for the North Creek area, zone FS-2, and the 2600 block of Siloam Road, zone FS-1.
While residents are permitted to return home, the areas will remain on pre-evacuation status.
U.S.
Forest Service land remains closed.
More than 1,300 fire personnel remained on scene Monday, according to the morning update.
Several hundred personnel left the fire over the weekend.
The following roads remained closed for the fire on Monday, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation:
* Colorado 165 in both directions between McKenzie Junction and Interstate 25
* Colorado 78 in both directions between Colorado 165 and Rock Creek Road west of Pueblo
The exact origin of the fire remains under investigation, but officials believe it was human-caused.
As of Monday morning, a lightning-sparked wildfire burning east of Ouray’s Gold Mountain fire had consumed roughly 2,300 acres with no containment, according to fire officials.
That’s nearly 4 square miles.
The Elk fire, which started on July 9 north of Lake City, triggered evacuations in Hinsdale County last week.
Mandatory evacuation orders remained in place Monday morning around the fire, including residents west of Colorado 149 and north of the Independence Gulch Trailhead to the county line.
An updated evacuation map is available online.
Fire officials said the wildfire was “quiet” on Sunday, with the flames largely “creeping and smoldering.
”
The Willow fire had consumed roughly 7,181 acres with 41% containment as of Monday morning, according to fire officials.
The burn area covers roughly 11 square miles.
Mandatory evacuations remained in place Monday for an area bordered to the north by Lonesome Lake and Isolation Lakes, to the west by Twining Peak, to the south by Echo Creek and to the east by East Tennessee Creek.
Updated evacuation information can be found online.
More than 1,130 structures are threatened by the fire, though no structures have been destroyed, according to a Monday morning update from California Interagency Incident Management Team 8, which is leading the fire response.
Fire officials said the fire, which started on June 28, is human-caused, but the exact details of its origin were not available.
As of Monday morning, 690 personnel were on scene to fight the wildfire, according to fire officials.
Fire officials said 13 injuries have been reported from the fire, but did not specify if those injured were firefighters or civilians.
“Fire behavior may increase slightly as widespread thunderstorm activity has diminished,” fire officials said in the Monday update.
“The fuel bed remains critically dry.
”
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.