1 dead, 5 structures impacted by Stone Canyon fire near Lyons

One person died and at least five structures were impacted by the Stone Canyon Fire near Lyons, according to a Wednesday morning update from the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.

Lyons, which is normally buzzing with visitors and traffic as a gateway town to Rocky Mountain National Park, was quiet and still Wednesday morning as thick smoke from the fire — which reached over 1,500 acres as of around 2 p.m. Wednesday — settled in the town.

Against this backdrop, Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson announced that first responders found human remains in one of five homes damaged by the fire.

Johnson was unable to provide any further details on the remains since the fire investigation is underway, he said. However, officials have not been made aware of any other missing persons reports since the fire started.

"We did also today discover human remains in one of the residences," Johnson said. "I can confirm to you that we do have one fatality associated with this fire."

As the Stone Canyon raged Wednesday, business owners in Lyons evacuated Tuesday evening following mandatory evacuation orders. After no overnight growth however, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office lifted some mandatory evacuations Wednesday morning.

One such area is the home of the Lyons Farmette, a wedding and event venue founded in 2010. Nestled in between Stone Canyon Drive and Nolan Road, it is situated at the bottom of the hill leading into the fire and was an epicenter for traffic flow fleeing the fire further north.

Garrison Schulte is the general manager at the Farmette, responsible for all operations. He is cautiously optimistic about future conditions, despite high temperatures and low relative humidity, well aware those can change in an instant.

“We got lucky last night, even though the winds shifted directions… The fact that the fire didn't move with that wind was really lucky and it stayed at the same size. To wake up to that news was great,” he said. “I'm not saying we're out of the woods yet, because all it takes is a strong gust or an ember to move to another area and it could light back up.”

During the past two days, Schulte said his attention was fixed on the Alexander Mountain fire, burning near Carter Lake outside of Loveland. As the crow flies, it is about 10 miles north of where he and his wife live and work.

But on Tuesday, a friend texted him about a fire burning much closer. At first, he thought the friend was seeing smoke from the Alexander Mountain fire, but walked up to the top of a field on his property and saw a “huge thick black cloud of smoke.”

And having lived through multiple wildfires and the 2013 floods that devastated Lyons and other communities, Schulte knew it was time to get ready to go.

“My coworker and I started loading up our livestock into our trailer and put that in the shade and then went around getting personal possessions, pets and things like that out of our home,” he said. “We just pretty much waited around all afternoon into the early evening for the order. We could watch the fire slowly advancing towards our property… I think it was around 7 p.m. when the Sheriff came by and told us we should evacuate.”

Their livestock was safely evacuated to a property in Longmont and the couple spent the night with a friend in the area.

But as one of Lyons most popular event and wedding destinations, Schulte said he’s gotten many calls from wedding organizers in something of a panic as the wildfire continues to burn with no containment.

The next five days were set to be extremely busy, he said, but due to the fire some cancellations have inevitably followed. This level of cancellation and concern hasn’t been experienced at the Farmette since the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. And as if cancellations weren’t enough, several friends and coworkers are out of town.

But Lyons is a small town and people came together to take care of their community members, Schulte said.

“We were like, ‘okay, we got their cats and dogs’ and another person is telling us what to get out of their house and it was kind of chaotic, but luckily everyone kind of pooled together and we had a good system and it all worked out just fine,” he said. “But it's kind of an uneasy feeling right now… we’ve still got the entire month of August, which could be really hot and dry, and the last big fires in this area were in October.”

By Wednesday afternoon, more than 120 firefighters with 37 trucks were working on scene to manage the fire, which was 0% contained.

The Stone Canyon fire was first reported by Boulder Office of Disaster Management on social media at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday.

By that evening, the fire had grown to be 1,320 acres and officials expressed concerns about fire growth through the evening, which was forecast to see less than favorable weather conditions, including high winds.

Wednesday morning, Johnson announced that the fire has not grown much overnight and was most active in the northeast section, as crews focused the most efforts on the south and west sides of the fire closest to Lyons.

"We're doing everything we can to protect the community," Johnson said. "There will be a considerable effort today to continue to work on this fire."

Throughout the day, firefighters were working on the ground and in the air, dropping water and slurry on hot spots and "pushing to knock this fire down."

Around 10 a.m., an all clear was issued for northern and western parts of Lyons, telling people they could return to their homes after evacuation orders Tuesday night.

The Boulder Emergency Operations Center public information map has more details on evacuation zones and an address search feature.

People with large animals that need to be evacuated can take their animals to Jefferson County Fairgrounds, 15200 W. 6th Ave., Golden, and those with small companion animals can take them to Boulder Valley Humane Society, 2323 55th St., Boulder or Longmont Humane Society, 9595 Nelson Rd., Longmont.

The Stone Canyon Fire is one of three actively burning fires near the metro Denver area. A second fire, the Alexander Mountain Fire, started near Loveland Tuesday and has reached 6,809 acres with 0% containment as of Wednesday afternoon. Down south near Littleton, a third fire, the Quarry Fire, started overnight following the other two. It is much smaller, at 200 acres, and is also 0% contained.