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Rain barely slows wildfire near Jackson JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) – A brief downpour slowed a 3,000-acre wildfire, but vacationers were no closer to returning to their homes, cabins and campsites in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
“This is not going to be over in a couple of days,” fire incident commander Ron Steffens said Thursday. Erratic fire behavior and dry conditions forced firefighters to drop plans to surround the fire and instead focus on stopping the blaze from lurching forward, he said. A tenth of an inch of rain over 20 minutes in the afternoon did little to stop the flames already roaring up trees. However, areas untouched by fire were soaked enough that officials did not expect any major flare-ups for several days. “We need an inch of rain to slow this down,” Steffens said. The lack of rain in northwestern Wyoming is close to what it was in 1988, the year of the infamous Yellowstone National Park fires. In Grand Teton National Park, precipitation has been about 5 inches below normal. In Yellowstone in 1988, it was 6 inches below normal, officials said. Lightning storms over Yellowstone National Park have ignited 10 small fires since mid-July but most have been contained. On Wednesday, firefighters contained a 10-acre blaze near Bridge Bay campground and marina. On Thursday, the largest fire, at 25 acres, was pummeled by aircraft dropping water and retardant. In Bridger-Teton, the so-called Boulder fire remained about a mile from homes, cabins and Granite Creek Campground sites where 200 people were evacuated Tuesday. Evacuees included Girl Scouts, vacationers and teachers attending a wilderness seminar. Some evacuees have been sleeping at a Red Cross shelter on cots in a Jackson Hole High School gymnasium. The majority are teachers from 17 states attending a wilderness seminar.
Evacuated on the first of eight days of their retreat, about 47 teachers expected to spend their third night in the gym and continue with lectures and workshops during the day. “It’s not so much a slumber party. We’re still trying to make this a learning experience,” said seminar organizer Donald Brown of the Safari Club International Foundation. People ate fruit and hot food in the school commons area. The mood seemed upbeat, as people joked and a man played guitar from his pickup in the parking lot. The fire had crept up to a portion of Granite Creek Road, a narrow gravel path that leads to the campground. Firefighters used small hoses on flames near the road. Helicopters dropped retardant elsewhere. A 20-member crew from South Carolina arrived Wednesday, increasing the number of firefighters to 95. Orders for additional crews were not filled because of a nationwide shortage of resources, although specialty crews were expected to take over the firefighting strategy Friday. Sixty large fires burning across the West on Thursday had consumed more than 637,000 acres. With limited personnel, much of the effort in the Bridger-Teton has been aimed at protecting buildings and private property. “To date we’ve been successful,” fire spokesman Dave Cunningham said. Those who fled included residents of about 25 summer homes, three or four year-round homes and about 100 people from the campground. The fire was started by lightning July 26. It was consuming conifer along with grass and brush on steep, heavily wooded terrain. In northeast Wyoming’s Campbell County, a fire doubled in size to 3,000 acres but has not threatened any ranches and cabins, said Fire Chief Gary Scott. Fifty firefighters managed to douse 16 smaller lightning-sparked fires. Air tankers were dropping retardant, and more personnel were expected to help. “All these fires came so quick,” Scott said. A fire southwest of Casper that burned 5,900 acres of ponderosa pine, sagebrush, grass and juniper was controlled Thursday. As many as 26 homes were threatened by the fire, started by lightning Saturday. Three homes were evacuated for a period. In the Big Horn Basin, more than 400 firefighters had 50 percent contained a wildfire that blackened 14,000 acres of juniper, limber pine and sage about 15 miles south of Meeteetse. Officials pushed back the expected containment date from Sunday to Monday as high winds and nearby smaller fires slowed the effort. In the Laramie Peak area of southeastern Wyoming, firefighters controlled two small blazes and expected controlling a third, at 160 acres on Green Mountain, on Friday. A fire near Encampment grew to 300 acres, including parts of the Medicine Bow National Forest, forcing firefighters to pull back, Pat Harrison of the U.S. Forest Service told the Rawlins Daily Times. Milder weather was expected to help stop the flames Friday. “The initial attack was not as successful as we hoped,” Harrison said. Nearly 62,000 wildfires have been reported across the nation this year, scorching more than 3.7 million acres, the highest total since at least the mid-1980s.
National Fire Information Center: http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html
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