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GRANBY – Guests at the Snow Mountain Ranch were allowed to return for their belongings Monday night after crews had a 50-acre brush fire on the ranch 50 percent contained.

The Grand County Sheriff's Office says the fire started just after 3 p.m. on Monday on the southeast part of the campus, which is operated by YMCA of the Rockies.

About 100 personnel from all Grand County fire departments and the U.S. Forest Service are fighting the fire.

The ranch is located between Granby and Tabernash. It is about 5,100 acres. The ranch specializes in helping children with physical challenges.

Authorities say no structures have caught fire and no injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire is unknown.

Snow Mountain Ranch told 9NEWS it implemented a mandatory evacuation of four reunion cabins. Each cabin holds 40 people. Residents were allowed to return to those cabins for their personal belongings and then relocated to other accommodations.

"It was a lot of shooting flames, there were tons of exploding trees and lots of black smoke," said Elizabeth Lowry, who was at the ranch for a family reunion. "We could sit on the porch of where we are and really see the fire."

"It went from a real small smoke to about a 20-acre fire in about 45 minutes," said Grand County Sheriff Rod Johnson. "We called all the fire departments from all over the county to help us fight this fire; they're all here now."

Johnson says about 200 people were taken out of the cabins and moved to another part of the camp. Deputies say they will be able to return late Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Authorities with Camp Chief Ouray say 354 campers and staff members were evacuated from that camp. The children were transported East Granby Middle School as a precautionary measure.

The American Red Cross has opened a shelter at the middle school.

Nancy Lataitis called 9NEWS from the camp and said about 25 families and other campers were checking in when the fire began. She says they were sent to a safe building on the YMCA campus.

"I saw a number of school buses coming in to help evacuate these kids to safe areas," said Lataitis.

She says the fire is close to the access road to get to the ranch, which is why people are not currently being taken out of the camp.

Lataitis said the fire started around 200 yards away from the building she was in and she can see the smoke and the fire.

"Every few minutes there's really dark smoke, so that concerns us that perhaps a building is going up," said Lataitis.

Lataitis says the fire may be progressing quickly due to trees killed by pine beetles in the area.

"Half the trees I'm seeing right now are dead and brown or dying," she said.

Sheriff Johnson agrees that may be part of the problem.

"We've been a little bit nervous in the last few years because of the beetle killed trees and obviously if you look at the way the fire moves quickly and burns off the needles, if you don't get a handle in time it burns the needles of you're in pretty good trouble," said Johnson.

She says the trees had been cut down around immediately the buildings at the ranch.

9NEWS also heard from Marty Dapogny, who lives about one mile west of the ranch. She says she got a reverse 911 call telling her to voluntarily evacuate.

However, Johnson says most people who evacuated may be able to return on Tuesday.

"We lucked out when that fire laid down on us we were able to jump on it," he said.

Click here for hourly updates from the YMCA of the Rockies. Parents who have children at one of the YMCA camps can call 970-887-2152 x1304 for more information.