08/23/2026
Update from the engine crew on assignment in Mesa Verde National Park.
The crew has been patrolling the park during most of the day and then acting as lookouts in the Park Point lookout tower in the afternoons as storms develop looking for lightning strikes.
They spotted and reported multiple small fires beyond the park boundary their first day. Yesterday the crew reported on strikes just within the eastern edge of the park and this afternoon smoke appeared from one of those strikes.
The crew hiked up the steep wooded slope with hand tools, a chainsaw, and a backpack worth of water where they found a single burning juniper with fire slowly spreading on the ground. The tree was cut down, cut into pieces, and contained. The crew monitored as the pieces burned to ash. They will repeat the arduous climb tomorrow morning to check that it is still secure and to add more water to any remaining heat they find.
They also responded to a minor medical emergency at the Cliff Palace earlier in the day.
