A more accurate map of the burned area from the Lee fire showed a slight decrease in scorched acres Wednesday, putting the wildfire back as the fifth-largest in state history.
Fire managers say the Lee fire in northwestern Colorado has burned 137,758 acres, only 3 acres short of surpassing the Hayman fire’s footprint in 2002.
To get a sense of how big a wildfire is, aviation crews use thermal imaging technology that can pick up heat signatures to provide near real-time, high-resolution data on a fire’s size.
“The earlier increase was due to limitations in the previous data, which temporarily raised the estimate,” fire managers said in a Wednesday morning update. “With updated mapping complete, the acreage now accurately reflects the true fire size.”
The new fire’s update dropped the fire’s size by 1,086 acres, returning to the estimate provided by fire managers earlier in the week.
With the help of rain, crews continue to make progress on containing the fire. The 10% that remains uncontained is burning on the southern edge, said Mike Izzo, sections operations chief.
Firefighters have also begun to repair areas that were damaged by suppression efforts.
Showers and thunderstorms are expected over the fire in the next several days. Local officials are keeping an eye on heavy rain that could bring the risk of debris flow and flash floods across burn scars.