The origin and cause of a Wednesday afternoon grass fire near Table Mountain is under investigation. The fire, first reported shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday near the 5000 block of Nelson Road, grew to be 52 acres in size.
Nearby properties were evacuated via an Everbridge message as well as a wireless emergency alert — or WEA. The number of Everbridge contacts that were sent the alert was 327 contacts. No structures were lost, and no injuries were reported, according to a Boulder County Sheriff Office news release.
Sheriff officials say they are aware that the Wireless Emergency Alerts issued for the #TableMountainFire was received by people outside of the immediate incident area, the news release states. Officials say it is important to pay close attention to the details within the alert.
Residents can also go to www.boulderoem.com to see more information and to look at the map, the news release states.
“Although the actual we identified for the evacuation areas was small, the 911 center has no control over where the wireless emergency alerts were actually received,” the news release states. “Once the message leaves our system, the cell phone carriers have the authority to increase or decrease the footprint, send or decline the message.”
The alert also went out to television and radio broadcasters, the news release states.
The responding agencies were: Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, Boulder County Parks and Open Space, Boulder Mountain Fire, Boulder Rural Fire, City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, Colorado State Patrol, Hygiene Fire, Lefthand Fire, and Lyons Fire. The city of Longmont also sent two wildland fire trucks and an assistant chief to assist in putting out the blaze.
