West Mullan Fire 60% Contained – $7 Million Spent So Far [AUDIO]

Tuesday was a good day for firefighters battling the West Mullan Fire near Superior. Fire Information Officer Pat McKelvey said late Tuesday that the fire is now about 60% contained.

"We're calculating it at about 60% contained, 6300 acres, and so far today, the aviation finance folks are estimating the cost at about $7.2 million dollars to fight," McKelvey said. We had a pretty good day today. We're pretty well lined around the fire now, so what we need to do now is improve that, and we would call that 'hardening the black'."

McKelvey said the optimism about 60% containment is tempered by the extremely hot and dry conditions that surround the fire perimeter.

"I want to caution people," he said. "It was 99 degrees here today with a relative humidity of around 11 percent. You can't say hot and dry any different than that. So, people don't have to wait for restrictions, let's do some self imposing and share the responsibility. Let's be careful with fire."

Fire Information Officer Pat McKelvey