Beulah volunteer firefighters save town as Aspen Acres Fire rages on

Beulah’s 22 volunteer firefighters kept the town from burning to the ground as the Aspen Acres Fire ripped across Pueblo County, a fight that put a small rural department against a fire that had grown to 93,916 acres, was 16% contained and had 1,646 personnel assigned by 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The blaze forced the town’s volunteers into a race against wind, heat and terrain. Jill Laca, the Beulah Fire Department’s public information officer, said, “Monday was a nightmare that we’d hoped we’d never have to see.” Fire Captain Tom Laca said crews first saw the fire cresting a nearby hill before the wind shifted. “That wind changed, and it started coming the other direction,” he said. “It blew it down to us.” Crews then went door to door warning residents to get out as quickly as possible.

Governor Jared Polis verbally declared disaster emergencies for the Aspen Acres Fire on Monday, June 29, 2026, when the blaze was estimated at 362 acres. He authorized the Colorado National Guard, aerial resources, engine and hand crews, and a Type 3 Incident Management Team as the state escalated its response. Colorado’s State Emergency Operations Center was activated at Response Level 1, Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 1 took over management on June 29, and the Alaska Critical Incident Management Team later assumed command on July 2.

By early July, the fire had destroyed more than 180 structures, including dozens of homes, and evacuation orders covered more than 3,800 addresses and about 11,000 people across Pueblo and Custer counties. The fire was human-caused and under investigation. It became one of the 10 largest fires in Colorado history, according to 9NEWS, as dry conditions, low humidity and strong winds kept the threat active.

Several Beulah firefighters kept working after learning their own homes had burned, including a mother-daughter team. Jill Laca said her son was among the first to respond. Volunteer firefighter Ross Marsh said he learned how serious the fire was from a call to another volunteer and rushed in as crews feared they might lose the whole valley. “We were trying to save what we could,” he said.

The Town of Rye told residents that emergency information would come through the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office and urged them to use the Watch Duty app and county alert systems. As some evacuation orders began to lift by July 7, officials still warned that more structure loss was possible while crews surveyed burned areas.