Originally reported by Greg Hirst – Oil City News
CASPER — John Peterson, incident command spokesman on the Mullen Fire burning in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, told Oil City News at 4 pm Saturday, September 26, that the fire has grown to 69,138 acres.
That’s nearly double the 35,810 acres still listed on Rocky Mountain Blue Team’s Incident Command’s regularly updated page, as of 4:40 p.m. Saturday.
A virtual community update is scheduled to take place on the incident’s Facebook page at 5 pm Saturday.
Red Flag conditions since Wednesday have driven the fire’s spread east on 2 fronts, prompting evacuations, and highway closures. It has also reached the Rob Roy Reservoir, the source of 50-75% of the city of Cheyenne’s municipal water supply.
426 total personnel are on scene, according to Rocky Mountain Blue Team Incident Management. Incident command has said there is a “critical shortage” of personnel and resources due to the large number of fires burning in the west.
Natrona County Fire District’s Fire Captain Darek Pepple, firefighter Derek Higgins and firefighter Chris Weaver are with Division Tango working structure protection near the evacuated Keystone community.