Haystack Fire updates: Fire doubles in size, burns into night

UPDATE: 8 p.m. Sept 18: 

The Haystack Fire was about 5,000 acres on Saturday evening—about twice its size the day before—according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Pre-evacuation notices remain in place south of Boulder for residents south of the Boulder River and Cattle Drive Lane, west of state Highway 69 and north of, and including, the Boulder Hot Springs, and west of Boulder for “the Depot Hill Road area north of I-15 including the Silver Bell Road area and Boomerang Gulch.”

Strong, shifting winds throughout the afternoon at times blew the fire’s smoke plume directly over Boulder and, at other times, west of Boulder over Depot Hill. Just after sunset, winds from the west were blowing the smoke to the east of the fire, south of Boulder.