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WATCH: Rafter captures start of Grizzly Creek Fire on video

On Monday, the Grizzly Creek Fire broke out along Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon.

The fire started at about 1:30 p.m. Monday in the median between the eastbound lanes and the elevated westbound lanes at mile marker 120, near the Grizzly Creek Rest and Recreation area.

Breezie Davis, an Aspen resident and counselor with Ajax Adventure Camp, submitted these video clips, captured from a raft floating by the fire as it quickly grew. Watch just how fast a wildfire can take off:



Davis said in a Tuesday interview with John Stroud of the Glenwood Springs Post Independent that she and another camp counselor were with seven campers, ages 5 to 8, with a Blue Sky Adventures guide, when they floated by the fire just as it was starting.

They put in at the Shoshone boat launch and were floating by on the Colorado River just east of the Grizzly Creek recreation area when they saw the fire spreading in the median. Traffic in both directions is currently detoured onto the lower eastbound lanes due to construction on the elevated westbound lanes.

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“As soon as we saw the smoke I grabbed my phone and started recording the whole thing,” Davis said. “We were telling the kids to stay calm, and that we were safe on the water. As soon as we saw it jump the highway (westbound lanes) I knew it was going to be a big fire.”

The group was able to stay on the river past Grizzly and No Name to their final destination at Two Rivers Park.

Glenwood Post Independent Managing Editor and Senior Reporter John Stroud contributed to this report, as well as the Aspen Times.


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