Friday, June 29, 2012 4:30 pm
The smoke that settled this afternoon in the Durango area is being produced by a burnout operation on the Weber Fire near Mancos. Firefighters are conducting a large-scale burnout operation on the north end of the fire to eliminate heavy fuels in areas where the fire has been burning in steep, broken terrain, which is too rugged and dangerous for firefighters to work in directly. Eliminating this fuel is critical to stopping the Weber Fire from spreading farther to the north, threatening Highway 160. Motorists traveling Hwy 160 in that area are experiencing traffic delays.