Wildland Fire – 08/24/11 – Ignacio, CO

On August 24th, 2011 at approximately 1400 hours, the Los Pinos Fire District was paged out to a report of smoke in the area of County Road 334 and Highway 151. A fire approximately 1 to 2 acres in size was seen from the Town of Ignacio. Southern Ute Agency Fire Management personnel were immediately notified as the fire was burning on Tribal Lands. As personnel entered the area, the fire started moving down Sambrito Canyon, driven by strong erratic winds from the north. The fire, named the Sambrito 2 Fire, ended up being run by a Type 3 interagency Incident Management Team (IMT). The fire was contained on the evening of August 29th, 2011.

When it was all said and done, a reconnaissance flight measured the fire at 535 acres. The fire was burning in Ponderosa Pine, Pinyon-Juniper, and Oak Brush approximately 7 miles east of Ignacio and 5 miles northwest of Arboles. Air resources utilized to suppressing the fire included a heavy air tanker, two single-engine air tankers (SEATs), and two (a medium and a light) helicopters. At one point there were 210 firefighters and seven Type 6 engines assigned to the fire.