DENVER — The Pearl fire burning in Larimer County has charred 128 acres with no containment, fire officials said Tuesday.

The wildfire sparked on private property west of Fort Collins around 11 a.m. Monday and is human-caused, according to county officials.

Investigators spoke to the man who caused the fire but are not releasing any other information about how the fire started, Sheriff John Feyen said at a Tuesday afternoon briefing. No structures have been damaged in the blaze.

High winds from thunderstorms grounded firefighting helicopters and air tankers on Tuesday afternoon and were blowing the fire toward some neighborhoods, said incident commander Mike Smith, but that’s what firefighters prepared for.

“We knew the forecast and that’s why we put so much emphasis on prioritizing neighborhoods and tried to secure fire lines,” Smith said at the briefing.

More than 2,000 contacts are still under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders, with the mandatory evacuation zone including Green Mountain to the north, Sheep Creek and Red Feather Lakes to the east, Poudre Canyon Road to the south and Middle Mountain to the west.

The Lake Erie and Mitchell Ditch areas remain under voluntary evacuation orders.

Low temperatures and higher humidity levels are expected throughout the day, which should help ground crews fight the fire, forest officials said.

Fire crews hope to gain some containment on the fire by the end of the day Wednesday, Smith said.

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