At the request of Sheriff Rick Dunlap, the Montrose County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution this afternoon restricting open fire, fireworks, contained open fires and public firework displays in all unincorporated areas of Montrose County (not including public lands). The fire restrictions are effective immediately until further notice from the Board of County Commissioners.

“This is not a knee jerk reaction to the Sunrise Mine Fire on the West End,” said Sheriff Rick Dunlap. “I’m suggesting the County put these fire restrictions in place because the fire probability is high on the Uncompahgre Plateau and extreme in the Uncompahgre Valley due to the amount of moisture from data supplied by the BLM and Forest Service..”

This resolution does not affect the City of Montrose or the Town of Olathe. Nucla and Naturita have fire restrictions that were enacted by Nucla and Naturita Fire Department earlier this week.

The most current drought information for the state of Colorado from the Colorado Division of Water Resources is available here: May 2012 Drought update.

Please visit http://denver.cbslocal.com/content-vertical/wildfire-ready/ to learn how to be Wildfire Ready.