Small brush fire quickly contained on County Road 26 last week

Ignited by faulty wheel bearing

By Katherine Nettles

A small brush fire broke out on County Road 26 west of Gunnison last Friday, August 2, temporarily closing the main detour route for US Highway 50 between Gunnison and Montrose while the Blue Mesa Middle Bridge is repaired. The Gunnison County Emergency Department sent out a notification at about 8:30 p.m. notifying the public that the road was closed, and the county’s emergency manager Scott Morrill said it was handled in short order with the road reopened by 10:30 p.m. the same night.

“It was a small fire which was contained quickly by Gunnison Fire Department,” he said. “The road was closed to allow the firefighters to operate safely. There was not room for traffic to safely pass fire apparatus on the road.”

Gunnison fire chief Hugo Ferchau confirmed the fire was ignited by a vehicle with a faulty wheel bearing that dragged along the road surface and caused a spark. The fire ignited about five miles from the northern intersection with Highway 50 and burned a little less than two acres total in the grass and sage alongside the road. 

There were no injuries, and no vehicles were damaged. 

“We sent seven firefighters with a brush truck and a water tender (a vehicle that holds 2,000 gallons of water),” said Ferchau. “We were on scene about an hour and a half.”

Ferchau said the brush was dry and easily ignited after the recent hot, dry weather. His advice: “Be careful. We’ve got lots of fuel out there and a lot of lightning lately, so if you see something let us know.” Ferchau said sometimes early detection comes from seeing columns of smoke. “Sometimes columns are virga (rain that doesn’t reach the ground), but we like to know,” he said, noting that a call came in over the past few days in which bystanders saw a brush fire ignite from a lightning strike on the ground but extinguished almost immediately by heavy rain. 

“With more rain in the forecast this week, hopefully we’ll keep getting that moisture to help things out,” said Ferchau.