An advancing forest fire that shows no signs of letting up, officials said Monday. About 600 firefighters are currently battling the 117-square-mile West Fork fire, which is burning about three miles from the town of South Fork in a section of the Rio Grande National Forest devastated by beetle-kill.
The fire will likely burn for months, and crews don’t expect to make significant progress until the beginning of the rainy season in July.
“This is a significant fire with significant problems, and we are not going to see any significant containment until we have significant changes in the weather,” Pete Blume of the Rocky Mountain Type I Incident Command told .
In addition to South Fork, crews are focused on preventing the fire from engulfing the Wolf Creek ski area, located near Pagosa Springs.