Colorado fire officials: 'It was a good day'

Officials say the Hayman fire could burn for 90 days if the area doesn't get enough rainfall.

CASTLE ROCK, Colorado (CNN) -- U.S. forest officials Thursday reported more success fighting the worst wildfire in Colorado history, crediting lighter winds and cooler temperatures for holding the fire back on its most difficult end.

"The weather's giving us a break, and we're trying to take advantage of it," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Rick Cables said.

"Knock wood," he said. "it was a good day."

The Hayman fire has charred nearly 100,000 acres and forced the evacuations of about 5,000 people from their homes. Officials said temperatures were expected to be cooler Friday, but then rise again Saturday and Sunday, prompting firefighters to work as quickly as possible to gain control of the blaze.

"The plan for tomorrow, if we get favorable weather, is to get hand crews on the fire lines, continue air flights and bucket drops to put out hotspots and to continue to be as aggressive as we can while we've got the weather," Cables said.

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Also attending the news conference was Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colorado, who inspected the Hayman fire from the air Thursday along with the forestry officials.

"This is a football game," McInnis said. "The fire's had the ball. Now we finally got an opportunity to run some plays."

In the meantime, he said, help is on the way from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"FEMA is going to immediately cut a check for the state of Colorado for $20 million," he said, bypassing the agency's usual victim reimbursement policy.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth called for a long-term, planned program to eliminate the buildup of fuel materials in forests to prevent future dangerous wildfires.

"What needs to happen is an active thinning and burning program," Bosworth said. "If we had been doing this for 10 or 15 years, I believe it would have made a significant difference."

The fire began Saturday in the craggy foothills of the eastern Rockies just south of Denver. It eventually could reach 200,000 acres if the winds and weather conspire to push it further.

The emphasis of the firefight shifted Thursday to the southern area of the blaze, near Lake St. George, firefighters said. About 1,000 men and women were battling the flames, officials said, hopeful that the brigade would total 2,000 by Thursday night.

"Fortunately, the fire seems to be holding on the south end. We haven't had any major, significant acreage growth today. On the north end, we were able to get hand crews in there and do some direct attack," Cables said.

Fires of Hayman's size pose additional problems for firefighters, said Mit Parsons, fire information officer with the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.

"With a fire this size, it's very complex and this is pretty rugged country," Parsons said. "It's going to take some time to do something like this."

Officials believe the Hayman fire started from an illegal campfire in the Hayman area of Pike National Forest and quickly spread across the tinderbox-dry pine and conifer forest.

The fire has destroyed at least 22 homes and 10 commercial buildings. Parsons cautioned that the numbers of structures burned will vary until more of the fire is under control.

Overall, nine separate Colorado wildfires were burning approximately 150,000 acres in the state.

The Coal Seam fire, about 160 miles west of Denver, destroyed 29 homes and 14 other buildings en route to torching more than 11,500 acres. But officials said Thursday they were confident the fire would soon be contained, and sent some of the crews battling that blaze to the Hayman fire.

The Trinidad Complex, a combination of two fires burning closely together near the New Mexico state line, has taken more than 34,000 acres and is very nearly contained.

The Missionary Ridge fire, about 12 miles north of Durango in the southwestern corner of Colorado, had burned 10,500 acres by Thursday, and officials predicted it would reach up to 15,000 acres before firefighters had control of it.

Half of Colorado is under a fire threat rated in the extreme category, with the rest of the Rocky Mountain state earning a high to very high fire danger rating from the U.S. Forest Service.