Barbara Lawlor, Peak to Peak.  Emergency responders in the Gilpin / Nederland area were kept busy last weekend putting out campfires and responding to accidents.

Reports of a few wildfires turned out to be bonfires, or charcoal grills or slash piles burning, but mountain fire departments are responding quickly to smoke sightings and fire reports as hot, dry weather dries forest and meadow fuel.

On Saturday afternoon, August 8, Timberline Fire Protection District, Nederland Fire Protection District and Gilpin and Nederland and Boulder deputies and officers responded to the scene of a motorcycle accident that closed down Coal Creek Canyon.

According to officers at the scene, a man driving a large Harley with a trailer was being followed by his wife on another bike when he went down in the gravel, parting company with his motorcycle; the woman was unable to avoid hitting him. Both of the patients were transported by ambulance to the hospital.

On Sunday afternoon, two girls, 11 and 12 years old, were riding an ATV on the Rollins Pass Road when they went over the cliff, an extremely steep drop off. The girls were not wearing helmets and dropped about 150 feet. Both girls were seriously injured. A medevac helicopter was called to the scene and landed on the road. One of the patients had managed to get up to the road and she was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

After TFPD personnel set up a high-angle rope evacuation, the second girl was lifted on a litter to the road and transported by the helicopter to a hospital.