YAMPA - This evening, Governor Polis verbally declared a disaster emergency to support response efforts for the Crosho Fire in Rio Blanco and Routt Counties. The Governor also authorized the use of the Colorado National Guard as needed to support the incident and announced that he will be in Western Colorado at the Turner Gulch Command Center tomorrow (Thursday).
The Crosho Fire, which started burning on Monday, August 11th, has burned an estimated 1,700 total acres, with roughly 600 on state and private lands. Routt County issued evacuation notices earlier today across rural areas west of Yampa and west of Highway 131 impacting approximately 30 homes. This fire began on Routt National Forest land and spread to private land in both Rio Blanco and Routt Counties.
The disaster declaration activates the State Emergency Operations and Resource Mobilization Plans and authorizes the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to coordinate the state response through management of the State Emergency Operations Center and deployment of field operations staff to directly support county emergency managers with consequence management.
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