Fire Update – Stoner Mesa Fire
Thursday, August 14, 2025 – 8:00 a.m.
Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 1
Justin Conrad, Incident Commander
Information Phone: 970-341-8668 (new number)
Email: 2025.stonermesa@firenet.gov
Information Staffing Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Special Note: The Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 1 (CIMT1) assumed management of the Stoner Mesa Fire last night, August 13, 2025. We want to acknowledge San Juan Team 8 for the great work they did.
Fire managers subdivide the fire perimeter on large complex fires into branches and divisions to ensure effective management and safer operations. These daily updates will describe the fires’ activities and firefighters’ suppression actions within these divisions, which are displayed on the accompanying fire maps. Note that branch numbers and division letters don’t always run sequentially to allow for expansion of additional branches/divisions if the fire grows.
Current Situation: Rocky Mountain CIMT1 will continue to implement the strategy identified by San Juan Team 8 along with agency administrators and partners. Firefighter and public safety is always the highest priority, and this strategy manages risk while minimizing impacts to critical community infrastructure, private lands, and improvements.
Division A: Firefighters will continue to prepare the 686 Road down to County Road 38 as a contingency line in the event the fire pushes across existing control features. Along the northwest flank of the fire, near the fire’s edge, work will continue to establish control lines working to the south using handline, dozer line, roads, trails and natural barriers such as rock outcroppings.
Division T: Today firefighters will continue to hold and secure the completed dozerline between the 545 and 547 Roads. Firing operations will be used to reduce fuels between the fire’s edge and the completed control features which will reduce the threat of the fire escaping the completed containment lines.
Structure Groups: Two structure groups have been established to assess and protect structures along Highway 145 and County Road 38. These groups will continue assessments and mitigation work as needed to protect structures adjacent to the fire. A contingency line above Rico has been identified and is intended to divert potential fire impact away from the community. Structure Group 145 crews will be working between Stoner and Rico to assess properties and implement actions such as limbing trees, trimming weeds around structures and installing pumps, hose and sprinklers. Structure Group 38 will continue to work its way through the County Road 38 corridor conducting assessments and identifying mitigation work that is
needed.
Weather and Fire Behavior:
A red flag warning has been issued today for dry thunderstorms with strong outflow winds after 12:00 pm peaking after 3:00 pm with little to no precipitation expected. Temperatures over the fire area are forecasted to be near 73 while relative humidity will remain in the upper teens to low 20s. A Fire Weather Watch for dry thunderstorms has been issued for tomorrow, August 15, 2025.
Overall fire spread potential will be low to moderate on flat ground, especially in aspen stands and recently treated areas. Younger aspen stands are limiting spread, but older stands are holding heat for extended periods of time. Firefighters were told to expect elevated fire behavior within Stoner and Spring Creeks as steep slopes and very dry dead fuels have potential to be active during peak burning periods or windy conditions. Conifer stands with standing dead and heavy loads of dead and down fuels continue to be the main source of fire spread.
To view an interactive smoke and air quality outlook for the Dolores area, visit Stoner Mesa Fire outlook https://outlooks.airfire.org/outlook/8ab609e5
Evacuations:
For real time evacuation information please follow emergency alerts from the Dolores County Sheriff’s
Department at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067579500732.
To sign up for Emergency Alerts, please visit the Dolores County Emergency alerts at
https://member.everbridge.net/311578402488579/new and
https://member.everbridge.net/337829242601830/login for Montezuma County Emergency alerts.
Closures and Fire Restrictions:
The San Juan National Forests announced emergency closures in areas affected by the Stoner Mesa Fire. Additional details about the closure are available at
https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/nfs/files/r02/sanjuan/publication/StonerMesaFireAreaandRoadClosure.pdf
or https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/sanjuan/newsroom/forest-orders.
Fire restrictions are in place for the San Juan National Forest https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/sanjuan/alerts/stage-2-fire-restrictions and all surrounding public lands and in Dolores County. More information can be found at
https://dolocnty.colorado.gov/stoner-fire-information.
Wildfires are a no-fly zone for unauthorized aircraft, including drones. If you fly, we can’t. For more information, visit http://knowbeforeyoufly.org.
Fire Update – Stoner Mesa Fire.pdf
Map Stoner Mesa CO-SJF-000763 8/14/2025.pdf
