RANGELY | The Colorado Northwestern Community College (CNCC) Rangely campus is serving as the Incident Command Post and base camp for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Northwest Colorado Fire and Aviation Unit fighting the Red Canyon and Indian Valley Fires in Rio Blanco County. The unit began arriving on Monday, July 30 and is now utilizing roughly 500 personnel.
The southeast side of campus is dotted with tents, signs, shower trucks and other support equipment. The Weiss building, which houses the campus student center and bookstore, contains the “war room”, public information center, medical aid, and other staging areas.
The fires, both started by lightning, are at varying stages of containment as of a report from firenet.gov on August 3. The Indian Valley Fire, located 16 miles northwest of Meeker, is at 95 percent containment. The Red Canyon Fire, 31 miles south of Rangely, remains at 0 percent containment.
CNCC and the communities of Rio Blanco County are grateful to the firefighters for their service.
Special to the Herald Times from CNCC
