LOS ANGELES, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Elk Fire burning in northern Wyoming had scorched 51,115 acres (206.9 square kilometers) with zero containment as of Friday morning since it started by lightning six miles (9.6 kilometers) northwest of Dayton.

The towns of Dayton and Parkman, where about 1,000 residents live in, are in the "ready" stage of Sheridan County's three-stage evacuation procedure as Elk Fire incident managers braced for at least 24 hours of red flag conditions, including expected 50-mph (80-kph) wind gusts overnight into Saturday.

"With this anticipated hot, windy weather, it is likely that there will be an increase to the size of the fire," said the Friday morning update released by the InciWeb, an interagency all-risk incident web information management system provided by the United States Forest Service.

The blaze occurred last Friday evening and has caused numerous road and school closures and evacuations.

"We've got families in crisis. We have students that either need to help their families pack and get ready to evacuate - we have a lot of staff members who are actually in the fire department, up there, fighting," Jeff Jones, Dayton schools superintendent, told local KTVQ news channel.

There are currently 528 personnel assigned to the fire. Enditem

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