More than 500 firefighters have banded together to take on the 9,668-acre behemoth called the Alexander Mountain fire. 

A week later, the battle continues — but things are looking up, with fighters and officials confirming 83% containment on Tuesday afternoon and allowing residents to return to their Larimer County homes.

The turnaround from baleful to hopeful came on the backs of various agencies, fire departments and incident management teams — some from other parts of the country — that battled the blaze to save as many properties as possible and, more importantly, keep lives safe.

“Every single firefighter I walked up to was working hard. It really speaks to the dedication of our firefighters,” said Josh Portie, a division supervisor for the Southwest Area Incident Command Team One. “Everybody was on the same page. Everybody had a can-do attitude. It showed. This fire was ominous, but we really came together and acted like we’d been friends for years.”

Portie hails from Texas as part of the Southwest Area Incident Command Team One — one of 16 Type 1 incident command teams throughout the country.

Type 1 teams are national units, brought in for the largest fires, and operate through cooperation of federal, state and local land and emergency management agencies.

Portie’s team itself is made up of local, state and federal organizations across the country. It operates under the standards of the National Wildfire Coordination Group. The Southwest Area team usually operates in both New Mexico and parts of Texas.

Last Wednesday, they were called out to Colorado. They got boots on ground by Thursday.

“We’ve got a lot of people from Colorado. We had a lot people from Virginia, Oregon and Texas. Literally, all corners of the country,” Portie said in an interview with The Denver Gazette. “A lot of members on this team actually responded to the September 11 (2001) Twin Towers collapse. We run the gamut.”

According to Portie, the Alexander Mountain fire situation started with local departments attempting to battle the oncoming flames the morning of July 29. Once they realized it was growing past their resources, they brought in a Type 3 Incident Management Team, made up of local Coloradoans, to help build maps and plan pathways to fight the fire.

After a few days, the complex incident management teams, like Portie’s, were brought in to take over. 

Portie, as one of the supervisors, oversaw one of the regional divisions that had been broken up over the fire’s coverage. He was then put in charge of all of the firefighters, equipment, hand crews and had to place aircrafts coming in and out of that division.

He noted that the comradery of the management team, with some members being around for 20 years, made jumping in efficient. 

“When you show up and see the same people, you’re already thinking the same way,” he said. “You’re already operating on the same policies, procedures and terminologies.”

Though Portie and some of his teammates had been fighting large fires for over 20 years, the Alexander Mountain fire still presented unique challenges.

To the team, the biggest complexities were the terrain and the U.S. Highway 34 corridor, with plenty of structures on the opposing side. 

“Since that canyon is so narrow, that was really what my job evolved into,” he said. “Playing the ‘what-if’ game. What if it jumped over that canyon?

“If it’s just a fire out in the wilderness, we can use heavy equipment like bulldozers and push line. Once we start getting into different terrain and near structures, we can’t use the same tools.”

The teams used trucks and hose lines when accessible from US 34, bulldozers in areas where there weren’t structures and literal garden hand tools to cut fire lines deep in the wilderness. 

“I don’t know if there’s a tool in our toolbox that we didn’t use. It was really pulling out all of the plays,” he said.

And though every local in the area was evacuated, creating clearer passageways for firefighters, wild animals emerged from their usual habitats.

“It’s not uncommon to be out there on the fire line and look up and there’s big bears, cats and snakes trying to evacuate out of the fire themselves,” he said. “We have reports of bears out there on that 34 corridor, as well.”

When people leave the area, animals “stretch their wings” and try to escape the fire, according to Portie.

The blazing-hot weather, often hitting around 100 degrees every day, was no joke, either.

No firefighters were reported injured during the week-long battle.

And though the battle isn’t over, it’s getting close. The hard work across dangerous terrain is paying off, he said.

Tuesday will be the last night with an overnight crew, for example.

“You’re always hesitant to say things are looking good, but things are looking really good,” Portie said. “It was some impressive work by a lot of the folks who were here. It surprised a lot of us that we were able to be successful as quickly as we were.”

Though some firefighters may receive a two or three day vacation after the fight is over, that depends on the agency they work for.

Some, Portie said, will be back in the office the next day.