A wildfire appears to have been sparked in Boulder just south of Green Mountain on the east side of the Flatirons late Friday morning. The fire is burning on property owned by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. 

As of 2:30 p.m., the Boulder Office of Disaster Management reported the fire to be 3.5 acres. Over 75 firefighters have been deployed to fight it and a pair of helicopters are dropping water on the blaze, the office reported on X.

Residents who live near the base of the hill leading up the NCAR began to gather near a media staging area in order to learn more. Several reported they received alerts and started preparing a “go-bag” filled with essential items in case an evacuation was ordered. 

Megan Dopp lives right around the corner at the last row of houses before Table Mesa Road begins ascending towards the climate research facility. The initial reports, which she got via text message at about 11:30 a.m., prompted her and her family to pack their essentials and prepare for an evacuation order.

That order never came, and by 12:45 p.m., the Boulder Police Department reported no evacuation or pre-evacuation concerns. Once the family got this report, they breathed a sigh of relief and came to watch the fire with their kids. 

“I was running on the mesa at 10 this morning and thought I smelt something,” she said. “The kids know we’re ready to go, but they’re doing alright and are fairly calm. We also arranged boarding plans for our dogs in case we needed to evacuate.”

The two children were “enjoying the air show” as fire crews came in with big fire fighting helicopters to douse the flames.

A city and fire department public information officer, Jennifer Siplet, said there was one county helicopter and a few fixed wing aircraft assisting ground crews with fighting the fire. An aerial command post was also circling the fire, helping coordinate crews at the top of the NCAR hill. 

Though not the first fire to burn in the NCAR area — a fire burned almost 200 acres in 2022 and was human caused — Siplet said all fires any number of factors, like the soil, wind and fire direction can all impact how the fire behaves.

“Any time there’s a fire… there’s all kinds of different conditions that our wildland fire crew is absolutely expert at reading and responding to,” she said. “I lived here during the Marshall fire, I know that there’s there’s a lot of fear in this community around wildfires, so I just want to say it’s not necessarily the same kind of fire.”

As Siplet spoke, several Xcel Energy vehicles were spotted coming up and down the NCAR hill. After the Marshall Fire, the most destructive wildfire in state history, Xcel faced more than 300 lawsuits. An intensive investigation by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office determined the fire had two causes, one of which was an unmoored Xcel power line, according to a previous report by The Denver Gazette. 

Siplet could not comment on whether there were Xcel power lines in the area they were investigating and workers with Xcel on site said there was no public information officer present. The energy utility did not respond to a request for comment before press time.

Residents in Boulder reported seeing smoke and flames beginning around 11:30 a.m., according to social media posts.

“The Dinosaur Fire is not behaving in a way that is a cause for evacuation concerns at this time,” Boulder Police reported at 12:45 p.m., on X.

By 11:45 a.m., Mountain View Fire Rescue reported a wildland fire burning southwest of Boulder. The department said no structures appear to be in danger, fire crews are en route. 

At the same time, the Boulder Police Department asked residents to not call dispatch to report it and said more information will be released soon. 

Crews reported the fire is between 2-5 acres in size, with flames about 1-2 feet high, according to an emergency scanner. Relative humidity at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at the intersection of Colorado Highways 93 and 128 is reportedly at around 15%.

In Boulder, the National Weather Service reports humidity at 12%, with winds northeast at 13 miles per hour. Gusts may reach as high as 16 mph according to the NWS forecast. 

The fire comes at the start of an incredibly hot and dry stretch of weather in Denver and the nation. Highs through the metro area are expected to reach 100+ degrees and has prompted a heat advisory from the National Weather Service. 

The extreme heat made heat exhaustion a problem for wildland firefighters, so they rotated “on and off of the fireline faster,” said Mountain View Fire Rescue Public Information Officer Rick Tillery. “It takes longer for firefighters to get where they’re going working in these conditions in rugged terrain.” 

Tillery said that crews were staying hydrated.