As Huge Blaze Lies Down, Residents of Town May Get to Go Home Soon

The lumbering Rodeo-Chediski fire has quieted near here, opening the possibility that the town’s 7,700 residents will be allowed to return home in a few days, officials said Thursday.

The fire, only 5% contained, has destroyed at least 423 homes in nearby mountain communities. The blaze had threatened to blow into the city since Saturday, and had crept to within half a mile of homes at the forest’s edge. But as the fire stalled under cooler weather, it burned underbrush and lost its momentum, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jim Paxon said.

“Not only has the fire laid down and taken a nap, but Mother Nature has eaten herself out of house and home,” he said.

Residents in some of the stricken areas will be invited to tour their neighborhoods Monday and view the destruction from school buses that will not stop. “They will be able to drive by and see their loss and start dealing with that,” Paxon said.

Homeowners in some of the ravaged communities already have learned the fate of their homes by calling the county assessor’s office, which has inspected neighborhoods that were safe to enter.

The fire, a combination of two separate blazes that began June 18 and June 20, continued to grow on most sides Thursday, and some rural towns remained threatened, but no new evacuations were ordered.

Both fires started on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, one when a lost hiker set off a flare. The cause of the other is under investigation.

Firefighters remained on alert Thursday for more fires in the area because of isolated, dry thunderstorms spiked with lightning.

“The monsoons are setting up,” Paxon said, referring to July rainstorms. “Bring them on, Lord.”

He said it would take 2 inches of rainfall to quench the fires.

Similar storms caused havoc Thursday north of Durango. Authorities were about to allow many of the evacuated residents to return home but changed their mind when gusty winds threatened to spread flames.

The 70,419-acre fire was 30% contained. That blaze, and a smaller one that erupted earlier this week, have destroyed 57 homes; 683 families still are out of their homes. The smaller blaze was expected to be fully contained today.

The Hayman fire southwest of Denver was expected to be contained today, after burning 137,000 acres and destroying at least 133 homes.