Wild land fire near Kersey

Wild land fire near Kersey in Weld County that started around 1200 today has burned estimated 4,800 acres with numerous departments onscene.
3 seats working fire from the air.
Freqs in use:
127.325 am aircraft
168.65 natl flight following
154.28 vfire 21 or fern 1

FRCC
Weld co fire talk groups fire ground 15 and 22
Updates as I hear them.
73, Rex

From the Greeley Tribune

From the Trib:
UPDATE: I-76 open in both directions, firefighters continue to battle

Who exactly is using V-FIRE 21? I've been hearing one side of conversations on it all day, both at my office in Lakewood and my home in Broomfield. The one side I'm hearing comes through pretty well, maybe I'm only hearing airborne transmissions?

100% contained this morning.

Burned about 12,500 acres.

Jim<

Not sure who was using VFIRE 21, I was probably hearing the same communications that you were.
An airborne aircraft calling out areas for the ground forces to concentrate their actions on. This went on well after the " official" sunset time for aircraft to be out on the incident. I heard them until after 2000 hours.
A large incident, with lots of assets.
73, Rex

I believe the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control's Multi-Mission Aircraft (MMA) "Guardian 328" (N328SF) was the primary user of VFIRE 21 for this and the Jefferson County fire. They were somewhere between 13,000 feet to 18,000 feet from about 14:00 to 20:00.

For those that don't follow the whole State of Colorado firefighting aircraft fleet, Guardian 327/328 are a pair of turboprop Pilatus PC-12 aircraft with a bunch of equipment aboard for fire detection and observation. They actually have a P25 radio aboard, but I imagine politics has kept it to DTRS only and probably why they ended up using VFIRE 21.

DFPC actually has a video from a loaner aircraft they had operating in 2014.
Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control - MMA Background Reel - September 2014

Thanks for mentioning the aircraft that the state bought. I had forgotten about them, and based upon communications with the ground they were pointing out the active growth and hotspot areas. The pilot stated he was catching most of the hotspots while looking at the " IR scope" ( Infra-red).
73, Rex