Feds take charge of Lake Christine Fire, but it likely will burn for weeks

Lake Christine Fire Forces Evacuation near Basalt. KDNK

Fire crews descend on Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado, as fire spreads to 5,263 acres- Lake Christine Fire.

Report republished from the Aspen Times, from Scott Condon – Federal resources are pouring into the mid-Roaring Fork Valley to take command of the battle to corral the Lake Christine Fire after local firefighters saved hundreds of homes during a “chaotic” period.

“Today was a good day. We got some resources in,” said Keith Brink, operations section chief for the Northern Rockies Incident Command team, which took control of the firefighting effort at 6 a.m. Thursday.

Those resources include one hotshot team already on the fire lines and another arriving Friday. Brink called them “the elite of the elite.”

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - JUNE 13: Global SuperTanker Services LLC's B747-400 firefighting Supertanker, the worldÕs largest firefighting plane sitting on the tarmac in Colorado Springs June 13, 2018. (Photo by Joe Amon/The Denver Post)
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – JUNE 13: Global SuperTanker Services LLC’s B747-400 firefighting Supertanker, the worldÕs largest firefighting plane sitting on the tarmac in Colorado Springs June 13, 2018. (Photo by Joe Amon/The Denver Post)

All told, there will be between 300 and 400 federal and local firefighters battling the blaze by the weekend, according to incident commander Mike Almus.

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