Fire Update, 8/31 at 10:00 AM
Incident: East Fork Wildfire
Released: 8/31/2012
EAST FORK FIRE
FIRE INFORMATION FACT SHEET
Date: August 31, 2012 Time: 10:00 a.m.
Information Officer: Kathy Bushnell, 406-422-7164
Incident: East Fork Fire
Detected/Reported: August 22, 2012
Cause: Lightning
Location: T16N, R10W, Section 36, approximately one mile inside the southern boundary of the Scapegoat Wilderness on the Helena National Forest-Lincoln Ranger District
Incident Commander: Jarel Kurtz
Approximate Size: 75 acres
Fire Update:
Due to more accurate GPS data and mapping, the size of the East Fork Fire has been updated to 75 acres. The fire continues to experience moderate activity with some single and small group tree torching, along with some spotting, moving east within the Scapegoat Wilderness. Today fire personnel will continue to monitor the fire activity, but due to safety purposes there will not be any direct attack on the fireline. No structures are threatened.
The fire remains in contiguous sub-alpine fir and dense, dead timber stands. The strategy remains to safely manage this fire for suppression within the Wilderness boundary, primarily containing the southern flank and preventing further spread to the south.
Weather conditions will be sunny and warm with smoke lingering in the area. Temperatures could reach the low-80s, but the relative humidity levels will remain low at 15-20% with southwest winds that could gust up to at 15 mph.
Closures: For public safety due to the fire activity, below is a list of closures in the area:
- Arrastra/Porcupine Basin Trail #482: entire trail
- Trail #488: entire trail
- Dry Creek/Meadow Creek Trail #483: from the beginning in T15N, R10W, Section 17 to Southern Shore of Meadow Lake in T16N, R9W, Section 18
Fire danger level: High
More information: Visit Inciweb at http://www.inciweb.org/ or call Kathy Bushnell at 406-422-7164
