A wildfire that started yesterday has exploded to 4,958 acres in El Paso County in less than 24 hours.

Dubbed the Hammer Fire, the blaze is burning southeast of Fountain, discovered at about 5:08 p.m. on April 22. Believed to be human-caused, the fire has prompted an evacuation order for several roads in a sparsely populated part of the county that includes Hammer Road east to South Peyton Highway and Myers Road north to Squirrel Creek, with a evacuation warning underway from Squirrel Creek Road north to Clements. Evacuation notices are subject to rapid change.

At last report, the fire had zero percent containment with a red flag warning in effect until 9 p.m. on the evening of April 23, per the National Weather Service. Meanwhile, a ‘fire weather watch’ is set to take effect tomorrow.

Another fire that started on Wednesday has also prompted evacuations and interrupted traffic flow on I-70. The 392 fire has reached about 344 acres in eastern Colorado’s Kit Carson County, burning just west of the town of Flagler.

This fire prompted an evacuation order between County Road 1 and east to County Road 4, between I-70 north and Road AA. Westbound I-70 was closed yesterday, but has since reopened per the CDOT CoTrip map.

Updates related to the Hammer Fire can be found here while updates related to the 392 fire can be found here.

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