At the Friday afternoon briefing, officials working the High Park Fire reported that a total of 112 homes have now been been lost, including the 48 previously announced.
Whale Rock has been the hardest hit neighborhood, with 40 homes destroyed, according to Larimer County Sheriff’s Department Executive Nick Christensen. Other areas where homes have been lost include: Solider Canyon, Cloudy Pass and Picnic Rock, which lost one each; Old Flowers Road, one, which was also the site of the only fatality related to the fire; Tip Top, two; Spring Valley, three; Pine Acres, five; Rist Canyon, seven; Paradise Park, 12; Poudre Canyon, 17; and Stratton Park, 21.
Assessment crews will be working in Lawrence Creek, Redstone Canyon, Buckhorn, Stove Prairie and other Rist Canyon neighborhoods Saturday, Christensen said. He added that the number of homes damaged or destroyed is expected to rise as the assessments continue.
Nearly 200 firefighters, including Hot Shot crews with heavy air support, are concentrating their efforts on the spot fire on the north side of the Poudre River that prompted the evacuation Thursday of the 9th through 12th filings of Glacier View Meadows. That blaze, which started when embers were blown across the river at Steven’s Gulch, was estimated at 200 acres Friday afternoon. Air tankers have been drawing water from the pond near Western Ridge Resort as well as other sources to douse the flames.
The High Park Fire Disaster Recovery Center is now open at Johnson Hall on the Colorado State University Campus. The county-run center will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the next three to four weeks to help residents affected by the fire. For more information, visit the Larimer County website at www.larimer.org/highparkfire.
Information is also available at the Larimer County Emergency Information line at 970-498-5500 where Information Officers are answering the phone, on Twitter @larimersheriff, or Inciweb at www.inciweb.org/incident/2904/.
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