A more accurate map of the burned area from the Lee fire showed a slight decrease in scorched acres Wednesday, putting the wildfire back as the fifth-largest in state history.

Fire managers say the Lee fire in northwestern Colorado has burned 137,758 acres, only 3 acres short of surpassing the Hayman fire’s footprint in 2002.

To get a sense of how big a wildfire is, aviation crews use thermal imaging technology that can pick up heat signatures to provide near real-time, high-resolution data on a fire’s size.

“The earlier increase was due to limitations in the previous data, which temporarily raised the estimate,” fire managers said in a Wednesday morning update. “With updated mapping complete, the acreage now accurately reflects the true fire size.”

The new fire’s update dropped the fi

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