Firefighters said this weekend that they were slowly gaining the upper hand on the 102,895-acre Hayman Fire.

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The fire perimeter increased to 97 miles Friday due to several flareups, but air support kept the flareups from making dramatic gains on the forest.

Still only 5 percent contained, the fire was kept in check Friday and Thursday by calmer winds, cooler temperatures and higher humidity levels, allowing firefighters the opportunity to finally attack it offensively, and giving some evacuees the chance to return home temporarily.

"We're in a lot better shape," said Tony Diffenbaugh, a fire information officer. "That's not to say we're out of the woods yet. But the fire's intensity has gone down."

Even so, fire officials said that they expected the Hayman Fire to reach 130,000 acres before it is finally contained. That means it could grow another 28,000 acres.

The threat has greatly diminished along the fire's northeastern perimeter, so residents living north of the fire were allowed to return temporarily yesterday.

Officials also eased the voluntary evacuation advisory for the areas from Perry Park north to Roxborough Village.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office said that residents could return home if they want to, but they should not bring back their livestock and pets because the fire is still unpredictable.

Southern Flank Most Active

Lake George residents on the southern end of the Hayman Fire, where it is the most active, are hoping that they too will soon be allowed to return to their homes.

And there's some encouraging news on that front as well.

On Thursday night, fire crews set a controlled burn on the southwestern edge of the fire, and firefighters think it will allow many homeowners in that area to return home within the next couple of days, 7NEWS reported.

Town meetings will be taking place every night for each of the four counties where the fire has burned.

Douglas County residents can gather at Castle Rock Middle School at 7 p.m. That's the same time Jefferson County residents will meet at Chatfield High School. Teller and Park County residents can meet nightly at 7:30 at Woodland Park High School or Lake George Elementary School at 5 p.m.

Officials said that they will hold these community meetings nightly as long as the situation warrants.

Public information officers said that the most frequently asked questions during these meetings are when will the evacuation orders be lifted and when can they return home temporarily.

The answer to those questions depends entirely on weather conditions and containment, officials said.

When asked why so many people were evacuated on such short notice, fire officials said that wind and drought conditions combined to create a catastrophic situation. Never had a fire moved so far, so quickly as it did Sunday. The fire moved 19 miles in one day, and no fire in U.S. history ever moved that far that fast in one day, 7NEWS reported.

Building 90 Miles Of Containment

The fire had slowed considerably since last Sunday.

Firefighters on Thursday night were able to attack the fire offensively for the first time, instead of just working on structure protection.

More than 1,800 firefighters are on the front lines Friday, working in two shifts of about 900 to battle the massive blaze. And because the weather appears favorable, firefighters hope to make even more headway.

Armed with picks, shovels, saws, axes and lighters, firefighters are clearing brush and lighting backfires, working to slowly to build a 90-mile containment line around the perimeter of the fire. To put that in perspective, that would be as long as a drive from Denver to Pueblo.

The military is also getting involved. Peterson Air Force Base is sending in its really big guns -- a fleet of military transport planes -- to help drop slurry on the fire beginning Friday. The C-130 tankers are specially modified to drop 3,000 gallons of retardant. It is the first time the military aircraft have been called to fight a Colorado fire.

The Hayman Fire is the largest wildfire in state history.

The fire stretches about 20 miles long and 12 miles wide in the Pike National Forest.

Officials say that the fire, named after a mine in the area, was started by an illegal campfire Saturday afternoon about 8 miles northwest of Lake George.

Fueled by gusty winds, tinder dry trees and brush, the fire exploded from 2,000 acres to about 55,000 acres on Sunday.

Investigators are still looking for the person who started the campfire and are asking for help from the public. If you have information, you are asked to call the Douglas County Sheriff's major case tip line at (303) 660-7579.

Damage

There are 22 homes that have been confirmed burned, but officials said that the number could increase because they still have not been able to go into the charred zone to get an accurate assessment.

About 10,000 structures are still threatened.

AirTracker7 pilot Rich Westra flew over the fire damage around the Deckers area on Thursday and said that Deckers was "in the green," although the Wild Horse Saloon and Campground south of Deckers was destroyed.

Farther south, Westra found that the fire missed the Westcreek area and all of the buildings he could see there were still standing. To the north of Deckers, Trumbull appeared unscathed, as did the Wigwam Fishing Resort to the west of Deckers.

Several members of the volunteer fire department in Trumbull stayed behind to protect the town.

A home and several outbuildings were destroyed in the fire on the west side of Highway 126 as it turns north from the Deckers area.

According to Westra, the fire was about 2 miles off Forest Road 550, which is the "trigger point" for evacuating areas north of Pine, to Highway 285.

More than 1,700 people continue to be forced from their homes as a result of the blaze.

Cost

Considering that the fire won't be fully extinguished for another three months or until a heavy downpour, or snow, the cost of containing the fire could exceed $50 million before it's complete, officials said.

The federal government has agreed to pay 75 percent of that cost and 75 percent of the cost of fighting many other wildfires in Colorado.

There are currently five other major fires in the state, making the cost of fighting fires in Colorado account to $2 to $3 million a day, officials said.

Typically that money would be used to reimburse the state after the fires are out, but the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said he wants to be ahead of the curve.

"I'm making available immediately, $20 million to help focus these fires in the best manner that we possibly can," FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh said Thursday night.