Fire crews battling the East Troublesome fire are still reaping in the benefits of the weekend snowfall.

But with the assistance of Mother Nature, it has hindered some of the assessment efforts being done by the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, officials said Tuesday.

“Some places have a foot of snow out there, some have several inches, so (teams) are trying to identify what is a house, what’s a garage, what’s an outdoor structure,” Sheriff Brett Schroetlin said.

“The snow is not helping us (assess properties) at all out there. We’re trying to really make sure we get those crews in the field, but we have to do that safely and (the snow) is definitely slowing those damage assessment teams (down), but they’re making progress.”

Schroetlin added that a member of the sheriff’s office fell and suffered a minor injury while in the snow.

As of Tuesday morning, the fire has engulfed 192,592 acres and is only 20% contained, officials said.

Over the weekend, the impact zone saw anywhere from 5 to 20 inches of snow fall with the heavier snow coming down around Rocky Mountain National Park, said Russell Danielson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

For the Granby and Grand Lake area, Danielson said there was 5 to 9 inches of snow accumulation.

“Right now the biggest threat to our firefighters is the cold,” said Noel Livingston, an incident commander.

Despite fire officials allowing some residents to return to their homes, Schroetlin is urging residents to be patient and let crews do their work right.

“My obligation to the community is to provide them with accurate information,” he said. “We were able to get a lot of people back into their homes (but not everyone).

“I know people are frustrated (and want) to get back into their homes … but our community needs to function as a whole, so I’m asking us to have this community (unity) moving forward.”

Thirteen days ago, the East Troublesome fire began as a very minor and minuscule fire. On Oct. 21, the blaze exploded and grew over 100,000 acres overnight and caused thousands of evacuations and structure damage.