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Paradise Creek fire update: chief says incident contained, traffic gridlock highlighted limits of highway closures
Summary
The fire chief told council the Paradise Creek blaze was contained with air and ground assets and did not meet the threshold to trigger an evacuation. Council and the public flagged communication breakdowns and traffic gridlock as the most problematic outcomes.
Glenwood Springs’ chief of public safety gave the council a detailed post‑incident briefing on the Paradise Creek fire during the June 18 meeting, describing how aircraft and ground crews contained the blaze and outlining why traffic became gridlocked as I‑70 was closed and later reopened.
Chief Joseph Daryus said initial aerial estimates put the fire at about 20 acres but that the final mapped size was roughly 4.5 acres. He emphasized that aircraft operations — particularly helicopters drawing water from the Colorado River — required full highway closures for safety, and that high winds complicated fixed‑wing retardant drops.
"This was not an evacuation," Daryus told council multiple times, explaining the city’s incident choices were based on available information and evacuation thresholds. Still, he and other staff acknowledged that highway‑closure messaging and the timing of releases contributed to long backups and local gridlock once the westbound lanes reopened.
Public commenters and several council members pushed for clearer, faster communication to travelers on I‑70 and for better coordination with CDOT, the state patrol and regional agencies to avoid the bottlenecks that left many motorists stranded and stressed. Fire marshals said part of the miscommunication stemmed from uncertainty about how long a highway closure might last and from CDOT’s thresholds for instituting major detours.
Chief Daryus and the fire marshal said the city will conduct after‑action reviews with regional partners and the communications team to identify where warnings, messaging and traffic incident management can be improved before the next high‑risk fire season.
Why it matters: The incident highlighted the challenge of balancing aircraft‑based firefighting, interagency traffic controls on I‑70, and public communication so that travelers do not converge on a small valley town during in‑progress wildfire operations.
Provenance: Chief briefed council during the agenda item "Update on the Paradise Creek fire" (SEG 1817–2022). Public comment on communications and evacuations preceded and followed the briefing.
