It will look like an airshow in the Albany area on Wednesday as multiple aircraft will be coming in to help battle the Mullen Fire in Medicine Bow National Forest.
John Wallace, operations section chief for the management team on the fire, said heavy air tankers would fly over the Albany area throughout Wednesday to drop retardant on the fire.
Wallace, part of a new Type I management team that took over the fire’s management Tuesday, provided his update by Facebook livestream Wednesady morning.
The Mullen Fire has now affected 166,588 acres and is still 14% contained.
Wallace said during his update that firefighters saw “a lot” of activity Tuesday afternoon and evening, with many personnel working to protect structures in the Albany area. The fire reached 311 Road, but was held back by crews, he said.
“We’re just getting things ready for if the fire does move past Rambler, past Keystone and begin to move out and start threatening Centennial,” Wallace said. “So we’ve done a lot of cleanup work yesterday and last night, getting ready for the next three or four days.”
Although Centennial still hasn’t been evacuated, crews are preparing for the fire to move in that direction, taking this time to work on structure protection and placing hoses, just in case.
Smoke will also be heavy throughout Wednesday, Wallace added.
According to fire tracking website InciWeb, lighter winds are expected Wednesday, the lightest that fire crews will see until at least early next week. Fire weather conditions will stay elevated, despite the lighter winds.
Temperatures will cool over the weekend, as well.