As of August 2nd, the Oak Ridge fire is 100% contained, according to the Oak Ridge Fire 2024 official Facebook page. After sparking from lightning on June 22nd, the Oark Ridge fire burned 1,310 acres along the Pueblo and Custer county lines. The fire was burning just 3 miles northwest of Beulah, Colorado where evacuations were in place.
With the fire contained, the focus now turns to flash flooding and debris flow from heavy rainfall. Immediately after a wildfire, ash and burned debris can easily run off from heavy rain. Beyond the initial run-off of ash and burned vegetation, the soil underneath can become hydrophobic, meaning it repels water. Rain will not soak into the hydrophobic soil, while unburned soil will absorb rain.
Justin Louen, the Service Hydrologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Pueblo, CO has studied the US Forest Service's Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) report of the Oak Ridge fire and notes that "less than 30% of the burn area experienced moderate to high soil burn severity."
"Everyone is feeling fairly confident that we won't experience too many issues with this burn scar given its smaller footprint and relatively low intensity," Louen adds.
While this burn scar does NOT provide a worst-case scenario flood risk for Beulah, there is a heightened risk for run-off post-fire. The NWS has determined that the threshold for a flash flood warning at the burn scar is reduced from a normal 1.75" of rain in 1 hour, down to 1" of rain in 1 hour. This means, that a flash flood warning will be issued for this region sooner than and with a lower rain rate than pre-fire conditions.
From the BAER report, debris and run-off is most likely to flow into Middle Creek from the north side.
Even though the fire did not move into Beulah, ash, and debris may flow from the fire downhill into the community. Therefore, the NWS has indicated that their flash flood warning polygon for the burn scar will also include the Middle Creek corridor and part of Beulah.
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