Saturday Update 9-8
Incident: Powell Sbw Complex Wildfire
Released: 9/8/2012
POWELL SBW FIRE COMPLEX
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Nez Perce - Clearwater National Forests
Contact: Bob MacGregor
(208)942-0303
Date Started: 7/20/2012 Total Personnel: 178
Cause: Multiple Lightning Strikes Size: 38,975 Acres
Percent Contained: 0% Injuries to Date: 0
Resources: 1 Type 1 Helicopter, 1 Type 3 Helicopter, 7 engines, 1 Type 1 crew, 2 Type 2 IA crews, 1 Type 2 crew, 2 feller-bunchers, 1 skidder, 2 skidgines, and 1 water tender.
Location: The complex consists of three main and numerous small fires situated in an arc running southeast to southwest of the town of Powell, Idaho, straddling the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness boundary. The three main fires are named from east to west as: Fern, Cedar and Freeze Out Queen.
Yesterday' Activities: A stubborn inversion that never lifted combined with low winds and high humidity created a smoky day with little fire growth on Friday. Total acreage gain yesterday was 755 acres. Crews used the lack of fire behavior to concentrate their efforts on finishing up the burnout on the Beaver Creek contingency line. The fire along the Highway 12 corridor near Warm Springs Trailhead was kept under observation by a combined force of engines and a hand crew. Helicopters were grounded by the thick smoke but the fire managers in the air operations section worked on getting a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) in place for the area over Beaver Ridge. This was necessary to ensure that the helicopters on this complex did not have encounters with tankers flying to the McGuire Complex near Dixie, Idaho. A TFR is a geographically-limited, short term air space restriction.
Today's Activities: There was very poor recovery of the relative humidity on the ridge tops last night, this will set the stage for active fire behavior on Saturday when the inversion lifts, which is forecasted to occur about 1:00 p.m. The relative humidity on the ridge tops may drop as low as 5%, which is extremely dry, and will cure fuels at the higher elevations. The most active area today is predicted to be on the ridge between Storm Creek and Crab Creek on the Fern fire, where the fire is poised to move northeastward along the ridge top. Firefighters will be mopping up and strengthening the Beaver Ridge fuel break. Fire managers are planning to use Fire Line Explosives (FLE) to extend the contingency line to the Beaver Ridge Lookout. FLE are linear explosives that enable crews to construct firelines under certain conditions much faster and with less environmental impact than conventional methods. The passage of a dry cold front with wind gusts of up to 35 miles per hour is still forecast to occur on Monday afternoon and all resources are working to make sure the effects of this weather event on the fires is as limited as possible.
For Updates follow this incident at: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3226/
For Tips on Keeping Your House Firewise: http://www.idahofirewise.org/
