Map of Olde Stage Road Fire

Updated: 2:54 p.m.

A revised estimate of the amount of land burned in the Olde Stage Fire this week has been increased from 1,400 acres to about 3,008 acres — or about 4.7 square miles — within a 6,400-acre perimeter, according to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.

Fire officials determined the more-accurate burn estimate using a Global Information Services mapping system, according to Boulder County sheriff's Cmdr. Phil West.

In evaluating the damage, sheriff's deputies discovered that what was initially reported to be a destroyed home and chicken barn near U.S. 36 and Neva Road actually was an abandoned turkey coop and adjacent support structure. It was not a private residence, sheriff's deputies have determined.

That means one home at 7202 N. 45th Street and three large outbuildings were destroyed. According to the Sheriff's Office, it's "likely that the number of structures lost will rise, once sheds and smaller outbuildings are tallied."

Several homes sustained lesser damage to decks, fences and landscaping, officials said.

A 23-person crew from the Department of Corrections is working the scene Friday, and a fire crew from the Sheriff's Office will monitor it over the weekend, according to West.

Possible snow forecast for Friday afternoon and evening could speed up the efforts to extinguish hot spots that remain, West said.

An estimate of costs incurred and property damaged during the fire isn't yet available, but the Sheriff's Office accounting section is hoping to have numbers crunched by next week.

Updated: 01:07 p.m.

Although the Olde Stage Fire is not out, the Boulder County Sheriff's Office is calling off its primary incident-command unit and leaving a six-person crew at the scene for the next few days to hit hot spots and continue "mopping" up.

In the evenings, Sheriff Joe Pelle said, firefighters will patrol the perimeter of the fire every couple of hours to make sure there are no flare-ups. The fire is fully contained, Pelle said, but it doesn’t yet meet the "controlled" qualifications.

Next week, the Sheriff's Office will meet to review the fire response and look at things that could be done different in the future, Pelle said.

Updated: 07:35 a.m.

A crew of firefighters will continue to work on the Olde Stage Fire all day to monitor hot spots and complete "mop-up" efforts.

The blaze that charred more than 1,400 acres, sent about 1,300 people from their homes and destroyed two buildings and other barns and outbuildings remains 100-percent contained, according to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.

Most of the hot spots that crews are hitting today are west of U.S. 36, north of Broadway and south of Middle Fork Road, officials said. The wind occasionally kicks up some of the smoldering areas, but they are not a threat.

Updated: 11:35 p.m.

Despite fast-moving flames that scorched more than 1,400 acres and put hundreds of firefighters in danger, residents and officials were thankful Thursday night that the Olde Stage Fire didn’t inflict more damage on Boulder County.

By the time the fire was deemed 100 percent contained at 8 p.m. Thursday, it had chased more than 1,300 families from their homes and destroyed two houses and several barns and outbuildings. But with no deaths and only three minor injuries reported, officials said it could have been much worse in the populated area north of Boulder.

“I was very emotional when I was able to see in the daylight how bad the fire could have been,” Jay Stalnacker, Boulder County’s fire management officer, said late Thursday. “It was very satisfying to see that we saved a lot of homes and didn’t get any firefighters killed. I felt pretty proud of what we accomplished.”

All families were able to go back to their homes by 6:30 p.m. Thursday, and all roads were open, although some flames were still visible on the top of Dakota Ridge. Those small hot spots and others were to be monitored by 20 firefighters overnight. They will give way to new crews early Friday morning, extending a long couple of days for emergency workers.

“The effort that went into suppressing this fire last night was exhausting and downright heroic,” Sheriff Joe Pelle said. “The firefighters did save a number of homes. ... The fact that no one was killed or seriously injured in a wind-driven event like this is miraculous.”

Vladimir and Eva Nejezchleb saw how much more devastating the fire could have been. The couple have lived in the same house on Olde Stage Road for more than 40 years and were able to return home Thursday night. As they looked over the deck to the ravine where the blaze roared through, they saw scorched earth just steps from their home.

But the blaze stayed away, and after a few minutes of searching, the couple found their two cats, Auto and Nette, safe in their house.

“We weren’t really petrified because we had been through this once before,” Eva said, recalling the 1990 Olde Stage Fire that burned 10 homes. “We saw that the ridge was burning, but we were able to get out. We’re just grateful to the firefighters who risked their lives to save our homes.”

Although Boulder County sheriff’s officials said they called more than 11,400 homes within a mile radius of the fire’s path — telling them to leave — sheriff’s Cmdr. Phil West said an assessment made Thursday indicated only 1,300 to 1,400 families evacuated overnight.

Evacuation orders were lifted neighborhood by neighborhood throughout most of the day Thursday, as more than 75 firefighters worked to contain the blaze.

The Olde Stage Fire began as two fires about a mile apart Wednesday afternoon and combined to create one giant fire scene.

A downed electrical pole at Rocky Mountain Llamas, at Neva Road and North 45th Street, burned a house to the ground and sparked a fast-traveling grassfire.

It eventually merged with a separate blaze that began along Olde Stage Road. The cause of that fire still wasn’t clear Thursday, West said.

Some homeowners, officials said, worked alongside firefighters to remove debris around their homes and spray down lawns and buildings using garden hoses.

Firefighters intentionally burned a large portion of land along U.S. 36 to prevent flames from cresting hills and entering residential areas, Pelle said.

“A lot of really good things happened (Wednesday) night,” he said.

Pelle said high winds Wednesday that made it “darn near impossible to physically fight the fire” had died down considerably Thursday.

Still, winds in the area of the fire had sustained speeds of 25 mph during the morning and peak gusts of 40 mph, Pelle said, preventing a helicopter from dropping water on hot spots.

Sheriff’s officials said more than 25 agencies from across the state — totaling about 250 people — worked together to fight the fire and manage evacuations Thursday. The combined costs of labor, equipment and damage from the blaze are still being tallied, they said.

County Commissioner Ben Pearlman signed a local disaster emergency declaration, the first step toward asking for state and federal disaster money, county spokeswoman Barb Halpin said.

Boulder County should eventually be reimbursed for some costs by the Emergency Fire Fund, Halpin said, which counties pay into each year as a form of disaster insurance.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency could end up paying 75 percent of all the costs for fighting the fire, Halpin said — but that process could take up to two years to complete.

Homeowners like Boulder County resident Rob Dietrich, who returned to find his house and his chickens in one piece, said they were grateful for the efforts that saved their homes.

Dietrich erected a hand-painted sign along Niwot Road on Thursday afternoon with a simple message: “Thank you fire and rescue.”

The sign sat a few hundred yards from the most eastern portion of the fire’s path, near the Haystack Mountain Golf Course at 55th Street and Niwot Road.

“The power in the house went out, and I went outside and saw sparks,” Dietrich said. “It got the whole back of the property.”

Dietrich helped load 13 of his own horses, a bulldog named Bruce and six horses belonging to a neighbor before obeying an evacuation order, he said. Only several chickens were left behind with an open gate in case they needed to escape, he said.

Neighbors in the area “rallied really well,” he said, and helped one another pack animals out of the rural area.

“Everyone was calm, and we had plenty of time and resources to get out,” he said.