DENVER — A memorial procession is carrying the pilot who died while fighting the Gold Mountain fire near Ouray from Montrose to Denver International Airport on Monday.

Nicholas Dale, a 56-year-old federally contracted fire aviation pilot from Sooke, British Columbia, died after his helicopter crashed into the Silver Jack Reservoir in southwestern Gunnison County on July 12. He was the fourth firefighter to die while battling Colorado’s summer wildfires.

Three firefighters — Emily Barker, 38; Nick Hutcherson, 27; and Sydney Watson, 27 — were killed two weeks earlier when they were overtaken by flames on the Western Slope as two fires from Utah converged with two fires in Colorado, together forming the Snyder fire.

As of Monday, that wildfire was 30,202 acres and 98% contained, fire officials said. The Gold Mountain fire, one of several still-active fires burning across Colorado, had consumed just over 38,000 acres at that time — Colorado’s 19th-largest wildfire on record, according to state officials.

Dale’s memorial procession started in Montrose at 7 a.m. Monday and was expected to reach DIA around noon, according to Gunnison County officials.

Aspen Acres fire in Custer and Pueblo counties

Colorado’s largest active wildfire has consumed nearly 101,000 acres and was 61% contained, according to a Monday morning update from fire officials. That’s more than 157 square miles.

The 100,756-acre Aspen Acres fire remains the seventh-largest fire in the state’s recorded history, behind the 2018 Spring Creek fire that consumed 108,045 acres, according to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.

Fire officials have said the Aspen Acres fire has destroyed close to 900 structures, at least 337 of which are homes, according to law enforcement in Pueblo and Custer counties. The wildfire’s growth has slowed in recent days as crews steadily increase containment around the flames.

Mandatory evacuations remained in effect Monday for parts of western Pueblo and eastern Custer counties.

More than 1,300 fire personnel remained on scene Monday, according to the morning update. Several hundred personnel left the fire over the weekend.

The following roads remained closed for the fire on Monday, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation:

•Colorado 165 in both directions between McKenzie Junction and Interstate 25

•Colorado 78 in both directions between Colorado 165 and Rock Creek Road west of Pueblo

The exact origin of the fire remains under investigation, but officials believe it was human-caused.

Gold Mountain fire near Ouray

As of Monday morning, the Gold Mountain fire north of Ouray had consumed an estimated 38,009 acres with 13% containment. That’s roughly 59 square miles.

The wildfire has not seen significant growth in about a week, but the crews are still working on containment.

“Containment refers to how much of the fire’s perimeter has been surrounded by a control line that firefighters are confident the fire will not cross,” Gold Mountain fire officials said on social media. “It is not a measure of how much of the fire has burned or been put out.”

More than 960 personnel were on scene to fight the wildfire on Monday, according to Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 2, which is leading the fire response.

Mandatory evacuations remained in place on Monday for residents of Ouray and Gunnison counties north of the fire, according to the evacuation map.

The Ouray County evacuation zone was bordered to the west by County Road 8 and County Road 10, to the south by Baldy Peak, to the east by Green Mountain and the Cimarron Ridge and to the north by Tommy Creek and Deer Creek.

Evacuations were also in effect northeast of the Cimarron Ridge, along the border of Gunnison and Montrose counties, according to the map. That area is bordered to the north by Washboard Rock, to the east by Gunnison County Road 864A, to the south by Hampden Lake and to the west by Cimarron Ridge.

Montrose County residents north of the mandatory evacuation zone and Gunnison County residents to the east of the zone were on pre-evacuation status at that time.

The cause of the Gold Mountain fire, which sparked shortly after 5:30 p.m. on June 27, remains under investigation

Elk fire

As of Monday, a lightning-sparked wildfire burning east of Ouray’s Gold Mountain fire had consumed roughly 2,300 acres with no containment, according to fire officials. That’s nearly 4 square miles.

The Elk fire, which started on July 9 north of Lake City, triggered evacuations in Hinsdale County last week. Mandatory evacuation orders remained in place Monday morning around the fire, including residents west of Colorado 149 and north of the Independence Gulch Trailhead to the county line. An updated evacuation map is available online.

Fire officials said the wildfire was “quiet” on Sunday, with the flames largely “creeping and smoldering.”

Willow fire near Leadville

The Willow fire had consumed roughly 7,181 acres with 41% containment as of Monday morning, according to fire officials. The burn area covers roughly 11 square miles.

Mandatory evacuations remained in place Monday for an area bordered to the north by Lonesome Lake and Isolation Lakes, to the west by Twining Peak, to the south by Echo Creek and to the east by East Tennessee Creek. Updated evacuation information can be found online.

More than 1,130 structures are threatened by the fire, though no structures have been destroyed, according to a Monday morning update from California Interagency Incident Management Team 8, which is leading the fire response.

Investigators believe the fire, which started on June 28, is human-caused, but the exact details of its origin were not available. As of Monday morning, 690 personnel were on scene to fight the wildfire, according to fire officials.

Fire officials said 13 injuries have been reported from the fire, but did not specify if those injured were firefighters or civilians.

“Fire behavior may increase slightly as widespread thunderstorm activity has diminished,” fire officials said in the Monday update. “The fuel bed remains critically dry.”

------------

©2026 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at denverpost.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.