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Smoke begins to clear JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) – Smoke has been drifting away from western Wyoming in recent days as firefighters hoped that cooler weather would continue to work in their favor over the weekend.
In Grand Teton National Park, five fires were spread over 13,000 acres, with firefighters focused on structure protection. A pair of wildfires in the Bridger-Teton National Forest were spreading slowly and were half contained. A third fire north of Kemmerer flared up to the southwest because of unfavorable weather and covered more than 20,000 acres. Firefighters have made significant progress suppressing fires in Grand Teton National Park and the Bridger-Teton National Forests, with 12 extinguished or contained, officials said. Yellowstone National Park remained open as firefighters kept a fire away from an evacuated resort and the park’s southern entrance. They were mopping up a fire near the park’s eastern entrance and the North Fork of the Shoshone River and its homes and resorts. At the southern entrance, the fire was half contained. The Teton Wilderness and Bridger-Teton National Forest remained closed to the public Saturday, as did portions of the forest near Fontennelle and Little Creek Drainage and isolated trails in Yellowstone. The public was prohibited from open fires and smoking outside vehicles. The fire in the Teton Wilderness burned a short distance farther west and covered 6,900 acres, officials said. Southeast of Jackson, a fire that had evacuated homes and a campground in the Bridger-Teton National Forest flared up but the campground remained open, officials said. Firefighters battling a nearby blaze were reassigned to fight the new flare-up. Northeast of Afton, firefighters with helicopters and airplanes pummeled a 11,900-acre fire that had grown slightly. No significant growth was reported on a relatively new fire south of Teton Pass. In western-central Wyoming, firefighters were using air retardant drops to attack a 15-acre blaze northwest of Ft. Washakie. Close to northeastern Wyoming, a stretch of U.S. 16 remained closed as a wildfire threatened homes and Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota. Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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