Waldo Canyon Fire 2012: Containment Holds At 98 Percent Due To Smoke Near Blodgett Peak (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Waldo Canyon Fire Holds at 98 Percent Containment

The Waldo Canyon Fire, the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, remains stuck at 98 percent containment due to smoke spotted near Blodgett Peak last weekend.

Firefighters had estimated that full containment would have been reached last Saturday, but Forest Service spokesman Jack Horner told the Colorado Springs Gazette that firefighters want "24 hours without smoke" before they call it 100 percent contained.

Authorities announced that smoke was not visible in the Blodgett Peak area on Monday, however now that rains have subsided and temperatures have increased again firefighters expected smoke to be visible again on Tuesday. The areas smoldering are on a very steep face of the peak and overhang a flat green area that has not yet burned, according to InciWeb.org.

92 firefighters continue mop up efforts and continue to monitor and support utility infrastructure repair.

On Monday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, former Colorado Springs resident, surveyed the destruction from the wildfire that consumed 18,247 acres, swallowed 347 homes and killed two people. Salazar said that there will be "better days ahead," but also warned that the West has not seen the end of the worst wildfire season in a decade, the Colorado Independent reported.

The National Interagency Fire Center's latest report shows that there are increased chances of wildfires for most of Colorado from now through October.

Meanwhile, officials in El Paso and Teller counties are trying to determine why two-thirds of the 32,000 evacuated residents did not receive emergency calls telling them to evacuate -- more than 20,000 evacuation calls were simply not delivered, according to The Associated Press.

The reverse-call provider, Cassidian Communications, has said that some calls were not completed due to the heavy volume of calls on the network. However, phone company officials said that the phones were working fine during the time of the evacuation.

Investigators in El Paso County located the Waldo Canyon Fire's point of origin last week, but they aren't revealing the exact location just yet.

“For the sake of safeguarding the integrity of the investigation I will not be discussing specifics on where that location is,” said Lt. Jeff Kramer with the El Paso County Sheriff’s office on Thursday morning.

However, coordinates obtained by The Denver Post along with dispatch recordings of firefighter conversations suggest that the origin may be on a ridge along the Waldo Canyon hiking trail west of Colorado Springs.

Although the cause of the fire is still under investigation the National Weather Service said that for June 23, the official date of origin of the fire, and for the day prior the skies were clear and no thunderstorms were observed meaning the likelihood of the fire being started by lightning are slim.

Before You Go

Waldo Canyon Fire 2012 Photos

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