A team from the Zuni Interagency Hotshot Crew on Thursday was fighting a fire that was spotted the night before on Ute Mountain, according to Gerald Whited, a public safety director for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe.
Whited estimated that 15 to 25 firefighters were battling the half-acre fire on the ground Thursday morning, and a Type 1 helicopter was dropping water collected from a pond north of the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel.
Resources were diverted to the mountain from the 514-acre Waters Canyon fire burning on tribal land just southeast of Mesa Verde National Park, according to a news release.
The cause of Ute Mountain fire likely was a lightning strike, Whited said.
The Ute Mountain fire is one of three active fires in a region that includes tribal land and land in Montezuma and Dolores counties. The Waters Canyon fire is burning at 194 acres. The Stoner Mesa Fire, which was reported Tuesday, has grown to more than 500 acres. North of Cahone, the Sharp Canyon Fire has burned more than 400 acres, but officials expect to fully contain its footprint this weekend.
