As the weekend begins, three of the four Front Range wildland fires that have raged amid day after day of hot and dry weather remain largely uncontained and the firefighters scrambling to keep up face a lack of resources from national or regional departments that would normally help.

While only one death has been reported, and at least 30 structures damaged or destroyed, fire officials were are on edge as forecasted wind and dry thunder/lighting storms were predicted for Friday night.

The Alexander Mountain fire in Larimer County is the largest of the blazes at almost 10,000 acres, and less than 10% contained.

“About 90% of our resource (requests) are not getting filled. It doesn’t mean we’re not getting resources in, we’re getting resources in every day,” Incident Commander Carl Schwope said. “Even though there’s a lot of competition out there.“

Crews battling the blaze still believe they have the resources they need to be successful.

Due to a number of fires burning across the Western U.S., including several in California and Oregon that are well over 100,000 acres in size, the incident team has put in specific requests that have gone unfulfilled because of competition for resources. There are about 450 personnel working the fire.

Across the country, more than 29,000 firefighters and support personnel are fighting 93 large wildfires, encompassing more than 2 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

The national wildfire season has had an intense start, raising the risk of stretching fire-fighting resources. The center has already requested help from firefighters in Australia and New Zealand, who will arrive starting Aug. 7 and deploy to Oregon and Washington.

The second-biggest Colorado fire, the Stone Canyon fire in Boulder County, as of Friday, had chewed up more  than 1,500 acres and was 30% contained. 

As the fire has not grown, the Boulder office does not expect any air support as it has been reassigned to other fires in the region with active growth. Indeed, tracking firefighting aircraft online appeared to show two tankers from the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport flying north to Casper, Wyo., likely to fight the 23,000 acre Pleasant Valley fire.

Three members of the state’s new wildfire investigations team — made up of nine fire investigators and four dog trained to sniff out accelerants — is working to help determine the cause of the fire.

Prior to 2023, local departments in Colorado were responsible for investigating their own wildfires, but Senate Bill 23-013 was passed, allocating nearly $3 million to the state’s division of fire prevention and control within the Department of Public Safety to create the investigation unit.

The collection of wildfires will be the first major incidents since the creation of the team.

The Quarry fire southwest of metro Denver in the Deer Creek Canyon area of Jefferson County, is now more than 550 acres and 0% contained. It was reported to be a 1/4 mile from homes. 

Two hot shot crews are working with 185 firefighters on the ground with assistance from three helicopters on Jefferson County’s Quarry fire. As of Friday morning, there was 0% containment with dry thunderstorms expected for the afternoon. 

There are around 20 local agencies helping work on the fire, according to spokesperson Mark Techmeyer. The Denver Fire Department, for example, helped the fight for the third day in a row.

Wildfire activity in California is 2,816% higher than at this time last year, with 29 times the amount of acreage burned, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, in an X post on Tuesday.

California’s Park Fire, the largest, has burned more than 600 square miles (1,550 square km) as of Thursday morning, an area bigger than the city of Los Angeles, state fire officials said. It ranks as the fifth largest fire in the state’s history and could soon become the fourth.

Reuters and Denver Gazette reporters Alexander Edwards, Kyla Pearce, Sage Kelley and Carol McKinley contributed to this report.