It’s astonishing with all the cold weather in the area but these wildfires are tough — really tough — to put out.
Even after the region plunged into sub-zero temperatures and received a foot of snow, the Mullen Fire is still smoldering.
And it will continue to smolder.
The latest update from the Mullen firefighting team said the latest round of snow the area received over the last few days won’t melt until spring.
That’s great news. But the fire — despite all of this — is still alive.
“You might be wondering if the Mullen Fire is out,” the team wrote on Facebook. “The short answer is that this blast of winter weather has been enough to cool down the fire, but not put it out.”
The good news is the firefighters expect little or no growth in the size of the fire.
“But some isolated areas inside the fire perimeter with smoldering heavy fuels are likely to produce smoke and occasional flare-ups,” they said.
That’s because clearing skies and a warming and drying trend is in the forecast for another week.
As a result, fire personnel will continue to patrol the fire and work on suppression repair over the next week or longer, they said.
When might it finally be extinguished?
“Southeast Wyoming and Northwestern Colorado have been in a prolonged severe to extreme drought this summer and fall,” they said. “Consequently, larger fuels have been extremely dry for months. It will take sustained heavy snowfall this winter to completely extinguish all hot spots.”
