Federal land managers have declared a full suppression approach to both fires, even though the national policy calls for letting fires in remote forests burn when that can be done safely — to let forests benefit ecologically from fire.
The 283-acre Bear Creek fire was burning 23 miles northwest of Pagosa Springs, west of the Weminuche Valley, and nearly doubled in size overnight.
But the practical difficulties of suppressing the Quartz fire, deep in the South San Juan Wilderness, has prevented ground and aerial attacks. “We are developing plans for when the fire reaches terrain where we can engage it,” Williams said. “In areas surrounding the wilderness, we do have critical infrastructure — utility power lines, gas lines.”
The Bear Creek fire was burning in similarly unhealthy and remote forest terrain, forcing firefighters into a standby position for now. “There’s beetle kill and heavy dead and downed timber. This makes it really dangerous and really difficult to fight the fire. We’re waiting for the fire to come down into the Weminuche Valley.”
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