Fire crews are extinguishing hot spots on a wildfire in northern Colorado that prompted evacuations early Wednesday for people living near Carter Lake in Larimer County.

The Cougar Run fire was estimated at about 3 1/2 acres at about 8:30 a.m., down from an earlier estimate of 10 acres, according to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. The cause for the fire, which is burning on state land, remains unknown. 

The mandatory evacuation remained in effect as crews continue to work but were lifted at about 10:30 a.m., the sheriff’s office said.

Voluntary evacuations were also being urged for residents in the area of Blue Mountain and Spring Valley, west of Carter Lake, the agency said. 

Crews from the sheriff’s office, the state’s fire division and Berthoud and Loveland fire departments are on scene, the sheriff’s office said. A helicopter was ordered. 

Fire restrictions are in effect for areas below 9,000 feet in unincorporated parts of Larimer County, barring uncontained open fires and smoking in open areas, such as trails and open spaces. 

“Elevated to critical fire weather” is expected across the lower Front Range foothills and Interstate 25 corridor Wednesday due to warm, dry and breezy conditions, according to the National Weather Service.  Moisture is expected to lower fire risk starting Thursday and through the weekend, with daily chances of showers and thunderstorms, the service said.

A separate fire that sparked northwest of Boulder grew to about 2 acres before crews stopped its progress earlier Wednesday. An evacuation warning was issued for the Goat Trail fire just before 4 a.m.

Denver Film is hosting its Silent Film Festival beginning Friday, including eight feature films and 11 shorts with live musical accompaniment.

Howie Movshovitz, Programmer for the Denver Silent Film Festival, joined CBS Colorado in the studio on Tuesday to highlight the film “Queen Kelly” and share what festivalgoers have to look forward to.

In the film “Queen Kelly”, produced in 1928-1929, a convent girl is abducted and seduced by a prince betrothed to a mad queen, an event that drastically changes the course of her life.

“People talk about ‘Queen Kelly’ as a restoration, but it isn’t because it was never finished. In 1928, Gloria Swanson got together with her producer/lover Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK, and they got together with Eric von Stroheim, a celebrity director, and they went to make Queen Kelly. And about halfway into it, Gloria Swanson fired him,” Movshovitz said.

He said that it’s unlikely the three of them would have been able to get along. Although the film was incomplete, he says there have been many attempts to restore it.

“A man named Dennis Doros and his partner/wife, Amy Heller, at Milestone Films did a reconstruction of it, and then a reconstruction of it. It’s been done a number of times, and this is the most recent,” Movshovitz explained. “They work from script. They work from outtakes, the visual quality of what von Stroheim shot, he was a genius, is fabulous. But it’s, of course, an imaginative response to a 1929 movie.”

Movshovitz says the love of silent films is not just about nostalgia.

“There are many films that are utterly brilliant, utterly fabulous, and still work perfectly well today,” he said. “So, it’s a kind of film that people don’t look at very much, but it doesn’t need sympathy, it doesn’t need nostalgia. It needs people to understand that, just as we read old books and don’t think of them as old books, silent film has its own majesty.”

Watching silent films with musical accompaniment makes the experience unique, said Movshovitz, adding that the festival has a skilled group of musicians performing.

The Denver Silent Film Festival runs from April 10-12 at the Sie Film Center in Denver. Click here to learn more about the featured films and to purchase tickets.

• Colorado has launched an automated speed camera program on a stretch of I-25, where cameras calculate average speed versus a single instant reading.
• The cameras make radar detectors and alerts from apps such as Waze obsolete, but they’ve greatly reduced excessive speeds in high-risk areas like work zones.
• Violators face a $75 fine mailed to their registered address, with no points added to their license; vehicles without license plates can evade fines.

Since 2023, the Colorado Department of Transportation has had the power to implement speed cameras in what it deems high-risk corridors where speeding is prevalent, such as work zones. The Colorado Speed Enforcement Program has been used in the past to better patrol a stretch of Colorado Highway 119 between Boulder and Longmont during construction, and it’s now popping up along a stretch of I-25 south of Fort Collins, about 35 miles north of Denver, where workers are adding new express lanes.

Speeding in construction zones has obvious dangers for drivers and workers, as well as law enforcement. Using automated detection is easier and safer than trying to patrol construction zones, which tend to have narrow lanes and little or no usable shoulders.

Enforcement for the five-mile corridor began on April 2. Prior to that, there was a 30-day warning period during which would-be violators received a notice but no fine by mail. Before monetary penalties went into effect, CDOT saw a 90 percent reduction of excessive speed in the targeted zone.

Waze May Not Help

Alerts from apps like Waze that warn you to slow down for speed cameras won’t necessarily save you from a fine here. Instead of taking an instant speed reading at one location like radar-based units, the system uses pairs of cameras—officially automated vehicle identification systems—set a distance apart that snap photos of each car, specifically its license plates. Average speed over the stretch is then calculated using the time it took to cover the known distance.

If that average is over the posted speed limit—some outlets are reporting a grace threshold of 10 mph—a bill of $75 for the civil penalty will be mailed to the vehicle’s registered address. In part because the system doesn’t know who was driving at the time, the owner and driver do not receive points on their license. CDOT says most of the revenue collected goes back into funding the Speed Enforcement Program.

The cameras are marked and preceded by warning signs set at least 300 feet up the highway. If you happen to be speeding when passing the first photo location, you still have a shot at avoiding a fine. As long as you slow down enough before reaching the next camera, you can bring the average down to something legal.

License Plates Required

Unfortunately, this is yet another incentive for drivers in Colorado to run their cars without license plates or skip registering them at all (ahem, sovereign citizens), which is already a big problem in the state. License-plate readers used to enforce express-lane tolling have the same issue. We have contacted CDOT to ask what happens if a vehicle without a license plate speeds through the enforcement zone; we’ll update this story if we hear back.

➡️ Skip the lot. Let Car and Driver help you find your next car.

Shop New Cars Shop Used Cars

Ever since David was a wee Car and Driver intern, he has kept a spreadsheet listing all the vehicles he’s driven and tested. David really likes spreadsheets. He can parallel-park a school bus and once drove a Lincoln Town Car 63 mph in reverse. After taking a break from journalism to work on autonomous vehicles, he’s back writing for this and other automotive publications. When David’s not searching for the perfect used car, you can find him sampling the latest in gimmicky, limited-edition foodstuffs.