Ward Gulch Fire - 6 pm update Tuesday
Crews made progress today bringing the fire to 95% containment. There are 208 personnel at this time still working on this fire; however, plans are to demobilize a number of firefighters in the next 24 hours. Barring any unforeseen change in conditions, the fire management will pass to the Bureau of Land Management local unit at the end of the shift Wednesday, and those teams will monitor the fire until it burns out.

Ward Gulch Fire - 8:30 am Tuesday - parks reopen
Rifle Falls Park is fully open, including for overnight camping. Rifle Mountain Park is open, and will be available for camping starting Wednesday night. The two parks had been closed to public use as a precaution, and the vegetation directly at the camping areas was not affected. Fire damage is visible from Colorado State Highway 325, from Grass Valley Road, or from the dam area at Rifle Gap, but the fire area is out of view from the central camping areas in these parks.

There is no change in the 485-acre size of the burn area or the 80% containment overnight Monday, however fire personnel hope to bring the containment to 100% by Tuesday afternoon. This means the fire is contained within boundaries while it burns itself out.

"While the fire is still burning within the area, we are moving towards a stage of mop up and rehabilitation now," said Pat Thrasher, Incident Public Information Officer. "This will mean going back over the fire lines and building water bars to reduce soil erosion. We will use firefighter teams to do this before they leave." Plans are to allow for natural revegetation. This fire burned quickly in the pinon and juniper, so did not damage the roots of the plants, and there may be some growth this summer in the area.

The estimated cost of the fire has reached $1.2 million. The fire management strategy was to heavily deploy air resources on the front end. That kept it from spreading too quickly, and had it developed into a 2-week event, it could have cost a million dollars a day. Inciweb Incident Management-| Colorado River Fire Rescue-| Register for emergency alerts online-|

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