Eagle Valley High School Turns Into Grizzly Creek Fire Command Post
EDWARDS, Colo. (CBS4)- The Grizzly Creek Fire has burned 13,441 acres in Glenwood Canyon as of Friday evening, growing rapidly to the east. As winds continue to push the Grizzly Creek Fire further east, residents in Dotsero are on standby for evacuation orders and the surrounding communities are doing everything they can to assist.
"After the fire first started, we were contacted that night and established that they could spend the night here, some of the firefighters here locally," said Eagle Valley High School Principal Greg Doan.
It was Monday when Doan opened the doors to the school's Health Sciences building, which was quickly setup as the incident command post for those working to contain the Grizzly Creek Fire.
With school starting in just 10 days, he had to adjust registration plans, but it seemed like a small sacrifice compared to the impact the fire is having on his community.
"As of today we did close down our registration process that we were doing in person and we sent staff home today," he continued, "if they were under pre-evacuation orders or due to air quality a lot of people are going to try and get out of town for the weekend and then we can try to reassess next week."
Done is worried about his staff, especially those in Dotsero. He has been the principal at Eagle Valley for 10 years and while he's no stranger to wildfires, this feels a little too close to home.
"Definitely smoke-wise it's worse. I've seen a lot more ash defiantly falling, you wake up and it's like Pompey, Vesuvius you know you see the ash falling on you. There's just sort of the real fear that this is very treacherous landscape around here, and so the ability to actually stop a fire around us… it's not a wildfire on grasslands where you can kind of clearly draw the line in the sand," he said looking outside.
The incident command post plans to switch locations, from the high school to the Eagle County Fairgrounds by the weekend but Doan says his school has the space and is willing to help.
There were already plans in place to do partial online learning. If he has to switch to full online classes to start the year, the school is ready.
The first site established for potential evacuees, right next to Eagle Valley High School, had to move further east to Battle Mountain High School.
It's just another example of how the community is pushing plans aside to help.
The Red Cross and Salvation Army moved fast on Friday to get water and other resources ready for anyone impacted.
The Red Cross says while many in Dotsero have self-evacuated, if an evacuation order is given, anyone without a place to stay can put their name on a list to get a key to a hotel room.
