Dan Boyce / CPR News Colorado Springs resident Jesse Turner after evacuation on Thursday, May 12, 2022.
Ackermann fire: Evacuations have been lifted for about a thousand residents
The Colorado Springs Fire Department has canceled the evacuation of residents near block 6700 on Akerman Drive, on the east side between Dublin and Stetson Hills, east of Powers Boulevard.
Around 11:19 a.m. on Thursday, a grass fire broke out in the area. Investigators are not sure what caused the fire, which slightly damaged two homes. No casualties were reported.
About a thousand residents were evacuated because of the Ackermann fire. Many gathered at the UCHealth Park Minor League baseball stadium.
Jesse Turner had moved to the evacuated neighborhood less than a week ago from California. She hasn’t even finished unpacking.
“We were outside picking up the boxes, everyone was blowing around, and then I heard sirens,” Turner said. “Then I heard my alarm go off on my phone and he said evacuate Summer Grace and I said, ‘What? This is us.'”
“I always wanted a little excitement. I was expecting a snowstorm or some hail, not a fire.
Another resident, Gina Fortunato, was working from home when she went upstairs for lunch and saw and smelled smoke.
“I heard some sirens in the distance; I didn’t think much about it, “Fortunato said.” And then I went out the front and somehow put it together, “Oh, hell, I live right next to the creek. it’s not nice.'”
School District 49 asks students to be taken
School District 49, which covers parts of northeastern Colorado Springs and the Falcon area of El Paso County, asked parents to pick up the children as soon as possible:
- Stetson Elementary students can be picked up at the school
- Skyview High School students can be picked up from the east entrance of Sand Creek High School; bus drivers will be picked up at Sand Creek High School two hours after the normal release time
- Ridgeview Elementary Students can be picked up from the north entrance of Vista Ridge High School; bus drivers will be picked up in normal release time at Vista Ridge High School
Students who do not have immediate transportation will be transferred to high school gyms until trips are organized, district officials said.
This is an evolving story that will be updated.
Learn more about Colorado wildfires:
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story was misspelled Akerman Drive.
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