VIDEO: For 43 days, firefighters have been exhaustively working the Cameron Peak Fire.
On Friday, they will face their biggest test.
That's when unseasonably warm temperatures, low relative humidity and westerly wind gusts exceeding 30 mph for a second straight day are expected to test the main fire lines that stand between the fire and thousands of homes and other structures in Red Feather Lakes, Crystal Lakes and Glacier View communities. The fire has crept to within three miles of Red Feather Lakes, according to Thursday reporting by the Coloradoan.
Since the Cameron Peak Fire started Aug. 13, around 10,000 homes have been evacuated around the 240-mile perimeter of the fire that had burned nearly 105,000 acres as of Thursday. That makes it the largest active fire in Colorado after full containment was reached Wednesday on the Pine Gulch Fire north of Grand Junction. The Pine Gulch Fire burned more than 137,000 acres.