The Derby Fire west of Bond in Eagle County showed little growth overnight, according to a Saturday morning update from the Derby Fire Colorado Facebook page.

The early morning update estimated the fire to be at 5,738 acres at 6% containment with 667 personnel on site. Those numbers are only slightly different from the Friday morning update, which indicated 5,736 acres with 5% containment and 692 personnel. 

Persistent rain in the region has helped stave off fire spread as response teams make their 14-day rotations. The Northern Rockies Incident Management Team 3 came from a neighboring region when the Derby Fire began, and officially wrapped its rotation Saturday morning. Rocky Mountain Area Complex Incident Management Team 3 — led by commanders Casey Cheesbrough, Jay Miller and Ben Sanders —is now managing the incident. The group is another complex management team, which handles more serious wildfires.

The decision to bring in another complex management team is largely due to the incoming dry weather and the fire’s potential to flare back up, requiring watchful eyes for coming weeks.

“In this case, this fire has enough stuff still going on and enough potential to still wake up and do something if it dries out,” public information officer Stefani Spencer told the Vail Daily earlier this week.

The weather forecast currently looks like it may do just that.

“We’re finally starting to see the monsoonal moisture push out of the region,” said Ryan Fliehman, incident meteorologist. “We see no chance of precipitation Sunday, Monday into Tuesday. And then in the middle of the week, we do get a little blip in the weather pattern that will reintroduce just a slight chance of precipitation.”

That’s why crews will be seizing the opportunity Saturday to prepare and strategize.

Ryan Sharpe, operations section chief, shared the intention to “go as direct as possible, meaning our firefighters are going to try to fight the fire right on the black edge.” Sharpe said Saturday’s strategy also involves continuing to assess structure threats in the Sweetwater and Red Dirt Creek areas while also identifying resources for initial attack within the temporary flight restricted area.

“Now that the fire behavior’s died down a little bit, we’re going to look at those opportunities,” he said.