Sunday Update 9-9
Incident: Powell Sbw Complex Wildfire
Released: 9/9/2012
POWELL SBW FIRE COMPLEX
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Nez Perce - Clearwater National Forests
Contact: Bob MacGregor (208)942-0303
Date Started: 7/20/2012 Total Personnel: 164
Cause: Multiple Lightning Strikes Size: 40,473 Acres
Percent Contained: 0% Injuries to Date: 0
Resources: 1 Type 1 Helicopter, 1 Type 3 Helicopter, 7 engines, 1 Type 1 crew, 1 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: Conditions for fire growth continue to be limited by an inversion in the atmosphere that kept smoke over the fire until the early afternoon. Despite hot temperatures, a high of 89 degrees at Powell, and low relative humidity the fire did not make significant gains on Saturday because once the inversion clears there is only a narrow burn period until the sun starts to drop behind the mountain peaks. Operations on Saturday concentrated on finishing up the Beaver Ridge fuel break and beginning the mopping up process. Fire Line Explosives (FLE) were used to great effect to finish the line up to Beaver Ridge Lookout. The FLE create an effective line that is easier to rehabilitate after fire operations are complete. Once the air cleared enough to fly, the heavy helicopter made numerous water drops around Bear Mountain Lookout to cool the fire near the structure. Pumps were run around the Pack Bridges within the fire area to wet them down in anticipation of the wind event forecasted for Monday.
Today's Activities: Weak thunderstorms will pass across the fires today producing light amounts of precipitation and weakening the inversion. There is a possibility of scattered lightning strikes associated with the storms and that will keep the Powell Ranger District Initial Attack crews on their guard. The storms will also be accompanied by strong southwest winds at 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. The winds are lined up with the general direction of the drainages and should produce increased fire activity. There is a good chance of fire movement on the ridge between Storm and Crab Creeks this afternoon. Operational activities will be very similar to Saturday, concentrating on mopping up hot spots in the burnout on Beaver Ridge, putting out any fire spots that cross to the north side of Highway 12 and generally preparing for the forecasted wind event on Monday.
There will be a Community Meeting at the Powell Ranger Station Cookhouse at 4:00 pm on Sunday!
For Updates follow this incident at: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3226/
For Tips on Keeping Your House Firewise: http://www.idahofirewise.org/
