The Mullen Fire in Medicine Bow National Forest continues to move north, albeit slowly, being hindered by cooler temperatures and higher humidities.
Officials gave an update on the fire during a Thursday night Facebook livestream.
Operations manager John Wallace said firefighters have been working in the northwest corner of the fire area to secure the perimeter, but have been hindered due to the roads being covered in dead Ponderosa lodgepole pine trees.
“There have been very difficult conditions in there and not a lot of success,” Wallace said. “So they’re going to start looking for other opportunities up to the north.”
Protection measures are being laid out in the Ryan Park area, with crews working on structure protection, although the fire was still about 10 miles away as of Thursday.
No update was given on the acreage during the livestream, but fire tracking website InciWeb reported 170,996 acres had been affected as of Thursday afternoon.
The fire has worked its way around Albany, so firefighters will focus suppression efforts in the transition between timber and grasslands along the old railroad line between Albany and Centennial.
Gov. Mark Gordon visited the area on Thursday to survey the damage and talk with fire crews, meteorologist Carrie Fleagle noted.
