A Delaware engine and its three-man crew are among the 313 personnel fighting the Oil Springs Fire, located 20 miles south of Rangely, Colorado.
The fire is located in a remote area in western Colorado with oil fields and related infrastructure.
The fire was started by lightning on June 18 and has grown to 12,613 acres with only 18 percent containment.
Delaware’s crew is working on one of the fire’s priority areas, Division D, which involves the protection of the Dragon Trail Compressor Site. The fire is spreading moderately in a mixture of pinyon, juniper and sagebrush.
Delaware’s crew is comprised of engine boss Samual Topper of Maryland, engine boss trainee Adam Keever of Newark, and FFT2 Bradley Melson of Milford.
The crew mobilized from Blackbird State Forest last week and started work on Saturday, June 26.
Delaware crews have been busy in the past couple of years in dealing with wildfires in the Western U.S. Last year, a crew was sent to battle a blaze in Eastern Arizona, an area that this month saw a massive fire that at one point threatened mining communities.
Currently there are 37 uncontained large fires and a total of 50 large fires have burned 667,397 acres. To date, 30,219 wildfires have burned 1,389,087 acres across the United States.
Delaware’s crew is comprised of engine boss Samual Topper of Maryland, engine boss trainee Adam Keever of Newark, and FFT2 Bradley Melson of Milford. The crew was mobilized from Blackbird State Forest last week and started work on Saturday, June 26.
Delaware has its own fire season, usually in the spring. The threat is greatest during periods of high winds and low humidity.
