The East Troublesome Fire saw far less growth Friday compared to Wednesday and Thursday, but crews are expecting another active fire day today.

There is a red flag warning in effect today with strong winds and low relative humidity expected before the snow moves in tonight. The fire has grown to 188,389 acres and is now 4% contained.

The fire has been split into two zones, the Grand Zone encompassing Grand County and the Thompson Zone to the east. The Cameron Peak fire team is managing the Thompson Zone, which is active this morning as it moves east.

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Incident Commander Noel Livingston said in a Saturday morning update focused on the Grand Zone that crews made progress Friday holding the fire line to the south and east toward the US Highway 40 corridor. US 40, which closed Wednesday night between Granby and Hot Sulphur Springs, reopened to the public Friday afternoon.

On Friday, crews worked the southern flank up to Table Mountain and to the back of Willow Creek using burnout to support line construction.

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“In essence giving us a good, solid containment line across the south and southeast corner of the fire which reduces potential threat to the community of Granby,” Livingston said.

Firefighters spent Friday working among houses throughout the eastern edge of the fire ensuring the blaze was suppressed near structures. That effort will continue today.

The threat continues on the eastern and southeastern corner due to today’s winds, but Livingston said crews are feeling more comfortable with how things are setting.

The northern edge of the fire is not contained and Livingston predicted that that would be where today’s most active fire spread would be. He said there was no imminent risk in that direction but that crews were keeping a close eye on it.

“We’re anticipating a busy day,” Livingston concluded. “We’ll talk to you again tomorrow, hopefully with some snow on the ground.”