Aspen Acres Fire

Benta Berkland for the Colorado Capital News Alliance.

The state has concluded that the Aspen Acres fire was sparked after a tree fell onto power lines under gusty winds.

Colorado Public Radio's Dan Boyce reports.

The investigation from the State Division of Fire Prevention says at the end of June, an aspen tree fell onto the lines.

Well, this is a new one just released over the weekend from the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.

We've been looking for a cause of the Aspen Acres fire, and this investigation determined that a fallen tree had made contact with energized power lines in Custer County, resulting in the fire.

The investigation is still ongoing, but the state agency has a pretty good sense of where it started.

They were skeptical at the beginning that it was lightning caused, and this investigation revealed that there was no lightning in the area during or before the event.

The Aspen Acres Fire is currently 82% contained.

It's burned more than 102,000 acres in Custer and Pueblo counties, which resulted in hundreds of lost structures and forced evacuations of both people and animals from all over the area.

The first day of the fire was reported on June 29th, first thing in the morning, and winds that day were reported at more than 50 miles an hour with some gusts up to 100 miles an hour.