GRAND JUNCTION — Good news arrived to the Western Slope. While the Lee Fire continues to grow in acreage, containment has gone up and the fire lines have held.

A new executive order issued Thursday by Gov. Jared Polis also expanded current disaster declarations to the entire state, which has lost 185,000 acres to wildfire so far this year, much of it in western Colorado.

The Lee fire, burning in Rio Blanco County, reached 133,841 acres Friday morning while containment increased to 12%, up 9 percentage points from Thursday. Importantly, the acreage growth remained inside existing borders. So far, the Lee fire and Elk fire, which is burning east of Meeker, have destroyed five houses and 14 other structures, with the Rio Blanco Sheriff’s Office beginning an expanded damage assessment Frida

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