FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Ute 63 Fire Public Information Office – 2025.ute63@firenet.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 23, 2025

Ute 63 Fire Update – July 23, 2025

The diligent work of firefighters has increased containment to 72% on the Ute 63 Fire. The fire remains at 530 acres. This progress was made possible by crews who spent Tuesday out on the line finding hot-spots and verifying containment. Their work was aided by infrared detection of heat signatures within the fire perimeter. On County Road 100, the sole access point for fire engines and heavy equipment, the suppression repair group worked to restore the road to its pre-fire state. Water tenders teamed up with graders to resurface dusty and travel-worn roads by wetting, scraping, and flattening them back to a public access standard.

Tomorrow as the incident transitions to a smaller incident management structure, fire crews will continue to collect, return, and rehabilitate equipment no longer needed on the fire so it can be repurposed and sent to other fire incidents across the country.

California Interagency Incident Management Team 2 is thankful to its Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Tribal partners for their hospitality and coordination while hosting crews in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado; the team is grateful to them and members of the local communities for their support.

Further updates can be accessed via the Southern Ute Indian Tribe Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/southernute.

La Plata County remains under Stage 1 Fire Restrictions; for details, visit https://www.lpcgov.org/…/emergenc…/fire_restrictions.php. For air quality information, visit https://www.southernute-nsn.gov/…/ambient-monitoring/ and https://fire.airnow.gov.

To report fires, please contact:

Durango Zone Dispatch: (970) 385-1324

Southern Ute Police Dispatch: (970) 563-4401

###