Fire Evacuees Allowed Home 'Really Thankful Everything Worked Out'
By Jeff Todd
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) — With the help of a few passing rain showers and a second day of heavy cloud cover, evacuated residents from the Peak 2 Fire in Summit County were allowed to return home Friday night.
"I'm ready, just ready for a shower and some clean clothes. Just to get settled back in and cook a meal," said Erin Jones who was towing a pop-up camper behind her Subaru. "We're really thankful that everything worked out the way it did."
Fire officials say the containment is still at seven percent, but a spot fire to the north has been completely circled with a fire line and officials say nearly 75 percent of the main fire footprint has a fire line perimeter.
"The weather conditions allowed us to make some really, really good progress," said Incident Commander Todd Pechota.
The fire is still listed at 84 acres, but since it's burning in dense beetle kill forest it's likely to smolder for days or even weeks.
"You're going to see smoke in there," Pechota said with a message for the returning residents. "They're going to see smoke. Remain vigilant. That's just a good message, be prepared."
"They warned us that things could change so we still need to be ready to leave if need be but they sounded happy with their progress and confident things will go well," Jones said.
Summit County said it would continue to provide updates on firefighting efforts here http://www.co.summit.co.us/Blog.aspx?CID=4
Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he's been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.