3,500-acre grass fire near Padroni ignited by motor vehicle crash

Residents in a small town on Colorado’s Eastern Plains were ordered to evacuate Wednesday afternoon after a grass fire sparked from a vehicle crash nearby, fueled by strong winds and dry vegetation, according to fire officials.

The fire burned between 3,500 to 4,000 acres and drew responses from departments in eastern Colorado and Nebraska.

The fire ignited at roughly 1:20 p.m. near the intersection of Colorado 113 and Logan County Road 66, according to a news release from the Logan County Office of Emergency Management. Winds at that time were between 25 and 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph, driving the fire through rough, dry terrain.

The fire was 80% contained as of 4:26 p.m., the release stated.

Evacuation orders were lifted as of 4:33 p.m., according to a Facebook post from the Logan County Office of Emergency Management.

The first orders were issued just before 2 p.m. Wednesday for the town of Padroni, home to roughly two dozen people in northeast Colorado, according to the Sterling Fire Department. The town is about 11 miles north of Sterling.

By 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, the evacuation zone had expanded to include parts of Peetz and Iliff, according to the Logan Office of Emergency Management. The zone included residents along Colorado 113 between County Road 62 and County Road 67.5, and in the area south to U.S. 138, according to the office.

Colorado 113 in Logan County reopened between County Road 56 north of Padroni and County Road 74 in Peetz as of 3:59 p.m., according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. The closure, from milemarker 9 to 16, was caused by fire activity, according to the agency.