Over 100K Acres Burn As Lee Fire Ranks Among State’s Worst

By: Jonathan Ingraham | The Gazette

The Lee fire southwest of Meeker, Colorado in Rio Blanco County has become the sixth largest wildfire in Colorado history, eclipsing the 2012 High Park fire, which burned 87,284 acres west of Fort Collins.

The fire grew from over 88,000 acres to over 92,000 acres throughout the day on Saturday, with no containment, state fire officials said.

By Sunday morning, the fire had burned 106,672 acres, however, some progress had been made and the fire was at 6% containment, according to state fire officials and federal fire maps. 

Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for Zones 20, 22, 25, 50, 51, 62, 63, 64 and 65, which are primarily south and west of Meeker.

Unfortunate weather conditions forecast for Sunday called for the fire to potentially grow as winds gusting to 20 mph were to blow from the north and northwest.

“Near-critical fire weather will return today,” the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team said in a Sunday update. “This will include low relative humidity, periods of gusty winds from the north/northwest and lack of cloud coverage. The very dry fuels with the expected weather could result in extreme fire behavior in some areas of the Lee Fire.” 

The Lee fire jumped over Colorado Highway 13 and is now burning on the east side of the highway in the northeastern corner of the burn area; the closest to Meeker the fire has been since ignition last week.

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