Colorado wildfires: Lee fire now fourth-largest in state history

A slowly growing nearly contained wildfire burning on Colorado s Western Slope is now the fourth-largest on state record according to fire functionaries As of Monday night the contained Lee fire had scorched acres between Meeker and Rifle It grew by acres on Monday after multiple days with minimal to no development The new acres consumed by the Lee fire bumped the wildfire from fifth-largest to fourth-largest in Colorado history passing the -acre Hayman fire that sparked in according to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control The Lee fire is now less than acres away from becoming the third-largest wildfire on state record At the moment that ranking belongs to the Pine Gulch fire that burned acres Rain showers and thunderstorms are forecast across the Western Slope again on Tuesday bringing much-needed moisture to the state fire officers explained Previous hot dry and windy conditions fueled rapid fire upsurge in multiple counties across western Colorado charring thousands of acres outside of the Lee fire Jump to Lee and Elk fires Derby fire A wildland firefighting truck heads down a road through a hillside burned from the Lee fire near Colorado in Rio Blanco County west of Meeker on Friday Aug Photo by Andy Cross The Denver Post Lee and Elk fires near Meeker The largest wildfire burning in Colorado now the fourth-largest ever recorded in the state consumed more than new acres after a week of slow rise and increased containment fire administrators noted As of Monday night the -acre Lee fire burning between Meeker and Rifle was contained fire personnel explained All mandatory evacuation orders were lifted Saturday and areas on pre-evacuation status were downgraded to monitoring status on Monday No new evacuation orders were issued overnight Monday despite the new fire progress An updated evacuation map for Rio Blanco and Garfield counties is available online The Lee fire and nearby Elk fire which consumed more than acres before reaching full containment last week have together destroyed at least five homes and outbuildings fire representatives declared Extreme drought high temperatures and strong winds fueled rapid development on both fires which were sparked by lightning west and east of Meeker on Aug Thunderstorms are preponderance likely near Meeker and Rifle between a m and midnight on Tuesday according to the National Weather Arrangement Rain showers which are also expected in that period could continue through a m Wednesday before a brief reprieve Rainy weather is expected to continue on Wednesday and Thursday forecasters explained While the rain is helpful afternoon thunderstorms also increase the peril of gusty winds frequent lightning and flash flooding along burn scars fire administrators commented Road closures tied to the smaller Crosho fire near Yampa were lifted Monday afternoon That fire has burned acres and is contained A plane drops fire retardant on the Derby fire burning in Eagle County on Aug Photo provided by Derby Fire Information Derby fire in Eagle County Related Articles Colorado wildfires Rains come to the aid of firefighters across state Colorado wildfires Western Slope fires continue to grow ahead of forecasted rain storms Colorado wildfires Long-awaited monsoonal rains come to Western Slope fires Colorado wildfires Helicopter responding to Derby fire ends up in Eagle County lake Colorado wildfires Evacuations downgraded in new Larimer County fire A wildfire burning on the edge of Eagle and Garfield counties has scorched more than acres fire executives The Derby fire is burning on acres with no containment up roughly acres from Sunday and acres from Saturday fire authorities mentioned Monday No size update was available Tuesday morning We have totally changed the pattern from hot and dry noted meteorologist Ryan Fliehman in a Monday evening briefing I m afraid we might get too much rain We are still having chances of precipitation six days out Rain has forced various fire crews to pull back and crews need to take extra care to avoid damaging dirt roads which have turned muddy Operations Chief Ben Patton announced No containment has been broadcasted on the fire but officers hope to start solidifying the first bits of containment in the coming days What does it mean when a wildfire is contained A look at how containment is determined This file is auto-generated function d l use strict l querySelector d addEventListener undefined typeof URL d wp d wp d wp receiveEmbedMessage d wp receiveEmbedMessage function e var t e statistics if t t secret t message t value a-zA-Z - test t secret for var s r n a l querySelectorAll 'iframe data-secret ' t secret ' ' o l querySelectorAll 'blockquote data-secret ' t secret ' ' c new RegExp https i i i