Fire Update Tuesday Aug 23 at 10:30 Am
Incident: Hoss Wildfire
Released: 8/23/2011
Crow firefighters dealt with twelve new fires Sunday night and Monday August 21 and 22. The largest, the Beauvais Creek fire, burnt 775 acres of grass and sage northwest of St. Xavier by 7:30 p.m Monday. It is still hot but was not showing open flame. Engines are patrolling that fire Tuesday.
The 42 acre Blankenship fire in Reno Creek was contained Monday evening and 75% controlled Tuesday morning. Engines and a hotshot crew are working that fire, which had threatened rural homes in the Reno Creek valley. The contained 2 acre Dan fire in Thompson Creek timber is staffed by a ten-person crew.
As of Monday evening the 800 acre Hoss fire in Black Canyon was 85% contained. If the fire does not grow through Tuesday's Red Flag conditions, management may diminish to active monitoring by engines and a helicopter by Thursday. A new smoke appeared in a difficult-to-access canyon of the Steamboat area of the Bighorns.
Firefighters expect to see more new lightning "holdover" starts in Tuesday's red-flag conditions of winds and heat. Lightning strikes can smolder for a week before they erupt into flame. Aided by helicopters and two tanker drops, crews contained eleven fires in 36 hours since Sunday evening. A ten-person Crow squad, a helicopter, and members of the corps from the Hoss fire are helping quell Northern Cheyenne fires Tuesday.
Big Horn County entered Stage 1 fire restrictions Monday, which prohibit building most fires or campfires, and prohibit smoking except within an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreation site or when stopped in an area three feet in diameter cleared of burnable material.
The Tribe has temporarily closed the Reservation's Bighorn Mountains to protect public safety due to Hoss fire operations and high fire danger. In Crow, Makawasha Avenue is closed by the Forestry offices, north of Little Big Horn College.
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