Sunshine Wildland fire: Structure blaze in Boulder County grows into 18-acre wildfire, evacuations ordered

Evacuations were ordered in Boulder County in Colorado, on Monday, after a structure fire grew within an hour into an 18-acre wildfire in the Sunshine Canyon Drive area. 

The residents in the 2900 Block of Sunshine Canyon Drive have been told to evacuate and a pre-evacuation notice has also been issued for the area of west Boulder between Linden Avenue and University Avenue.

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Boulder County Sheriff put out this initial tweet on Monday: “We are responding to a structure fire in the 2900 block of Sunshine Canyon Drive. Please avoid the area to give first responders room to work.”

However, just an hour later, the sheriff tweeted the following update: “We have issued emergency an EVACUATION ORDER at 14:12:49 on 12-19-2022 due to Wildfire occurring in the area of 2900 Block of Sunshine Canyon.” There was also attached a map of the area where the fire has impacted the most. 

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The officials have announced that the East Boulder Community Center, which is located at 660 Sioux Drive, will be used as the evacuation site starting at 5:30 p.m. local time. As for large animal evacuations, the Boulder County Fairgrounds is open. The Humane Society of Boulder Valley is taking small animal evacuations.

It is not known how many people are impacted at this time.

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The wildfire has been dubbed Sunshine Wildland Fire. It is burning west of the city of Boulder on or near Mount Sanitas. Rangers are evacuating visitors from trails on Mount Sanitas.

Firefighters are finding it difficult to contain the blaze due to wind gusts of up to 40 mph.