Her feet severely burned and her mother nowhere in sight, an injured bear cub was rescued by firefighters from the 416 fire burning outside of Durango last week.

At first, wildlife officials weren’t confident in the baby bruin’s prognosis.

“When the bear was brought in I wasn’t sure if it was going to make it,” Michael Sirochman, manager of Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Frisco Creek facility where the bear is being treated, said in a written statement. “But she’s responding very well to treatment and by winter we believe we’ll be able to return her to the wild.”

Officials say the cub was discovered wandering alone through a burned area by firefighters working the wildland blaze. They called wildlife officers, who on June 22 found the bear in a tree with burns to her feet, but otherwise healthy.

“We weren’t optimistic at first,” Matt Thorpe, CPW’s area wildlife manager in Durango, said in a written statement. “It probably hadn’t eaten in a couple of days, but it had survived on its own, so we wanted to give it a chance.”

The bear is being treated for her injuries and fed liquid milk.

“We have good luck returning young bears to the wild. We’re very strict about minimizing human contact,” Sirochman said in his statement.

CPW biologists said in a news release Friday that while some wildlife injuries in forest fires are likely, research has shown that most terrestrial animals are able to flee the imminent danger.

“When possible, CPW responds to reports of injured animals during forest fires,” the agency said. “Following forest fires, fish and other aquatic life that live in mountain streams are most susceptible due to the possibility of ash flows from burned hillsides.”

As of Friday morning, the 416 fire was burning on more than 41,000 acres and was 37 percent contained.

“Yes, the fire is bigger and will get bigger,” the firefighting command said in a Facebook post Friday. “Yes, there will be smoke. But Mother Nature and the terrain are really in charge of what the fire does and all we can do is take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.”

To-date, the firefighting effort has cost north of $25 million.