Mustang Complex Update 09/04/12
Incident: Mustang Complex Wildfire
Released: 9/4/2012
Fire Information: 208-865-2207
E-mail: scnf.fire.info@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
Location:North of the Main Salmon River, currently 6 miles west of the community of North Fork, Idaho.
Jurisdiction:USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Region, Salmon-Challis National Forest Resources: 962 personnel, including 13 hand crews, 79 engines, 5 dozers, 10 water tenders, and 3 helicopters.
Forecast: Cooler air containing some higher moisture levels is moving into the area today on northwest winds. This change in temperature and relative humidity levels will produce a more stable atmosphere over the fire and also keep the valleys smoked in for a longer period of time today. The valley inversions should break up by mid-afternoon. Nonetheless, strong northwest winds mixing down may overcome cooler temperatures and higher relative humidities, thus a Red Flag Warning has been issued for today from noon to 9:00 p.m. Channeling of winds in northwest to southeast aligned valleys and canyons may increase fire behavior and growth during the prime burn period which has been 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Remarks: Including the Cabin Springs Fire, the Mustang Complex has now grown to 241,701 acres. The most pronounced growth again was on the eastern perimeter of the fire primarilydue to yesterday's westerly winds pushing the fire in this direction. At its closest point, the fire is about three air miles from Highway 93. The fire is continuing to grow in the upper drainages of Sage, Hull, and Hughes Creeks. The fire also grew farther south in the Indian Creek drainage. Along the Salmon River Road east of Corn Creek, rocks and other fire debris continues to rolldown the mountains onto the roadway. A rock slide occurred yesterday temporarily halting traffic. The river road remains open; however, there may be periodic delays in traffic flow as a road grader clears rocks and fire debris from this three-mile section of road. Fire growth on the north side of the fire was less pronounced yesterday with last night's infrared mapping showingscattered heat dominating the northern fire perimeter as opposed to intense heat presently seen on the eastern flank of the fire.
Evacuations: Evacuation Levels were elevated last night for portions of the Highway 93 corridor from North Fork to Gibbonsville. For a complete description of the evacuation changes that occurred, go to Inciweb (http://inciweb.org/), Mustang Complex. Due to the increase in evacuation levels last night, the Incident Commander has decided to postpone the communitymeeting that was planned for tonight. The meeting will be held on a later date this week. To prevent security issues from becoming a concern in evacuated communities, the Idaho National Guard has been mobilized and is staffing checkpoints and providing 24/7 security in evacuated communities.
Contingency Work: The contingency work along the Highway 93 corridor is essentially completed and work crews continue to review existing mitigation for further possible improvements. Contingency work is also being completed in Montana's Hughes Creek community and the Lost Trail Pass ski area.
For information on the National Forest road, trail and area closures visit http://www.inciweb.org/incident/closures/3100/.
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