Fire Update, 9/2/12 at 6:30 PM
Incident: East Fork Wildfire
Released: 9/2/2012
EAST FORK FIRE
FIRE INFORMATION FACT SHEET
Date: September 2, 2012 Time: 6:30 p.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: 550 acres (which includes the spot fire)
Fire Update:
The East Fork fire remains active due to the high sustained and gusty winds and warmer-than-normal temperatures. Today, due to the westerly wind, the fire predominately moved east, still burning in that contiguous sub-alpine fir and dense, dead timber within the Scapegoat Wilderness boundary. The smoke is visible to the surrounding areas; however, it is not threatening any structures. The trail closures remain in effect for public safety reasons.
Fire personnel monitored the fire throughout the day and will continue to do so this evening; however, with the continued safety purposes there will be no direct attack on the fireline. 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.
The Red Flag Warning will remain in effect until 9 p.m. tonight; however, the windy conditions will likely continue until around midnight as they decrease to 10-15 mph over the fire area. Tomorrow, temperatures will return to the mid-70s, with a slight recovery in relative humidity levels to 18-24 and the westerly winds will increase in the afternoon up to around 20 mph.
Closures: Below is a list of current trails closures due to the East Fork Fire activity:
· Arrastra/Porcupine Basin Trails #482 & #488: entire trail of both beginning in T15N R10W Section 25 & T15N R10W Section 23
· Dry Creek/Meadow Cr Trail #483: from the beginning in T15N R10W Section 17 to junction of Mainline Trail #481 in T16N R9W Section 8
· Bugle Meadow Cut-across Trail #480: entire trail beginning at Meadow Lake T16N R9W Sec. 18 and ending in T16N R10W Section 1
· Sourdough Trail #427: entire trail beginning in T16N R9W Section 8 at the junction of Mainline Trail #481
Fire danger level: High
More information: Visit Inciweb at http://www.inciweb.org/ or call Kathy Bushnell at 406-422-7164
