The Red Canyon Fire continues to surge in multiple directions about 11 miles east of Thermopolis as it closes in on 100,000 acres burned since it was touched off by a bolt of lightning Wednesday.

By Sunday evening, the fire had grown to nearly 92,000 acres and was spreading quickly, said Tammy Boyd, spokeswoman for the Sierra Front Nevada Team 5 firefighting group that arrived Saturday to manage firefighting efforts.

It won't be long before it crosses the 100,000-acre threshold, she said.

“This is really challenging, and it’s not the only fast-growing fire that’s burning right now,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s in difficult terrain and there are numerous high-value resources (threatened) and some tricky weather.”

Those high-value resources include oil fields, a high-voltage power

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