Colorado’s fifth-largest wildfire in history continues to test firefighters along with the nerves of local residents, with a turn in weather on Wednesday expected to pose further challenges.

The Lee Fire southwest of Meeker as of Tuesday morning stood at 116,859 acres and 6% containment. That’s a 1% drop in containment as the fire added a few thousand acres in size Monday thanks to the help of fast-moving flames pushed by wind, the fire’s incident management team said.

“The fuels and the weather, it’s been killing us, (making for) very difficult suppression,” Fred Tucker, operations section chief for the team, said at a community meeting in Rifle Monday night.

The Elk Fire east of Meeker stood at 14,549 acres on Tuesday and 30% containment.

“That’s no small incident. That’s a large inc

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