Smoke from prescribed burn drifts into Glenwood

Glenwood Springs residents Friday afternoon started noticing a significant amount of smoke from the south, which Fire Chief Gary Tillotson said was from a prescribed Bureau of Land Management burn in Divide Creek, not a fire in town.

New ignitions to the prescribed burn were halted after word got to the Bureau of Land Management that smoke was drifting into town. The smoke was expected to clear up by the evening.

Winds were pushing smoke from the burn to the east, said Tillotson. To the north were clear, blue skies, while Mount Sopris was concealed by smoke south of Glenwood Springs.

David Boyd, public affairs officer for BLM’s Colorado River Valley Field Office, said that, despite the smoke, the prescribed burn had gone well.

Though fire managers were still estimating the full area burned, Boyd estimated the project had covered about 11,000 acres.

This burn used aerial ignitions from a helicopter. At about 3:20 p.m., he said that fire crews had stopped ignitions.