Officials stated that the NCAR fire had consumed nearly 200 acres in south Boulder and was 35% contained.
Saturday afternoon, the fire broke out near National Center for Atmospheric Research. 19,000 people were forced to evacuate in San Souci, Eldorado Springs and Table Mesa neighborhoods.
All evacuations were lifted by authorities at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
On Saturday afternoon, the fire had burned approximately 60 acres. It grew to 120 acres by Saturday night. It had burned 189 acre by Sunday afternoon. The fire reached 1,000 yards from homes, but no buildings were damaged or injuries were reported by Sunday afternoon.
“We’re going continue to try to corral the fire up into the rocks and into the snow. This is really one our big holding features right at the moment,” Incident Commander Mike Smith stated.
He said, “The intensity of the fire in some places was quite high.” However, the majority of the fire was low in intensity.
Around 150 firefighters from 30 agencies battled Sunday’s fire as an aircraft extinguished the flames.
Smith said, “We have resources coming in from all over the Front Range and working on this.”
Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the fire.
“The sheriff’s department is actively involved in it. Smith said that although we think we have the area, the origin, identified, we don’t yet know the cause.
In December, the Marshall Fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County and also killed two residents. It was the most destructive wildfire to cause property damage in state history.
Smith said, “These two animals are different.””It’s a little bit apples-and-oranges (to compare Marshall fires and NCAR) because of wind speed.
He said, “Right now we’re in an excellent position.” “The wind speeds are not the same as they were during the Marshall (fire). We had a lot to work with. We have full structure protection and assets up on the hill. I believe that as long as the weather does its job today and tomorrow, we will be in good shape.”