By Eddy Rodriguez
Newsweek Fellow
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Emergency personnel are currently working to contain a Colorado wildfire that began Monday and led to the evacuation of over 1,000 homes.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said in a tweet the Elephant Butte Fire located outside the city of Evergreen has burned more than 50 acres and is zero percent contained as 7:30 a.m. local time Tuesday.
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"No evacuation orders have been lifted and no new evacuation orders have been issued. We're hoping the cooler weather today helps us make progress," the sheriff's office said in the tweet.
Video and images captured the massive wildfire as emergency personnel worked to contain it. According to the sheriff's office, over 100 personnel from different agencies are currently fighting the fire.
Clouds of smoke could be seen coming up from the Elephant Butte Fire. A fire ban was implemented Monday due to the hot and dry conditions that could lead to a wildfire.
Helicopters could be seen pickup up water to take it over the wildfire. An airplane was also seen dropping a fire retardant.
The Jefferson County Sherriff's office posted an image of the fire in the late evening, and told residents they would be alerted if evacuation orders were to be lifted.
Paul Amundson, the incident commander and wildland captain for Evergreen Fire and Rescue, provided an update in a video saying firefighters planned to work into the night, following a brief pause in efforts due to lightning storms in the area.
"The plan right now is we have Tatanka Hotshots operationally out scouting...They are going to assess whether it is safe to go up and reengage. If it is then we are going to continue operations up there in through the night, probably into midnight [or] 1 a.m., evaluate where we are at and then pull folks off the line and come up with tomorrow's plans operationally," Amundson said.
Newsweek reached out to Evergreen Fire and Rescue for comment, but did not receive a response back in time for publication.
Emergency personnel could be seen headed to the fire site early Tuesday morning.
A spokesperson for the sheriff's office told reporters Tuesday morning they have no idea how the fire started.
"We don't have any information on what caused the fire yet...That will be something that will be determined later. Right now we're just focused on getting this under control," the spokesperson said.
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