Firefighters make progress on June Fire

Posted 7/25/17

“Feeling really good with our strategy and our progress up to this point,” Seekins, of the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Type 2 Team Black, said at a public meeting in Cody Sunday afternoon.

By Sunday night, firefighting crews made up of …

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Firefighters make progress on June Fire

Posted

May burn south into Shoshone wilderness

Things are looking really good,” was a phrase that Pat Seekins, who’s helping lead June Fire operations, used several times on Sunday while describing firefighters’ progress.

“Feeling really good with our strategy and our progress up to this point,” Seekins, of the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Type 2 Team Black, said at a public meeting in Cody Sunday afternoon.

By Sunday night, firefighting crews made up of 275 people reported having contained 28 percent of the North Fork fire. Thanks in large part to those efforts, Seekins said things were looking good on most of the wildfire’s fronts — with managers believing it unlikely the June Fire will advance toward U.S. Highway 14/16/20 or threaten structures along the North Fork corridor of the Shoshone National Forest.

The fire has grown relatively little since Thursday, estimated at 1,938 acres as of Monday morning.

“The threat is diminishing, at least at this point, though there’s still a lot of fire to deal with, so it’s not going to go away,” said Shane Greer, Team Black’s incident commander.

While much will depend on the weather, “this fire will likely be with us for a good portion of the summer if not all of the fire season,” said acting Shoshone National Forest Supervisor Eric Watrud.

Containing the June Fire’s southern edge has proven difficult, as the fire is burning in steep, rugged country that’s difficult to access.

“It’s just not worth the risk to put our folks there,” Seekins said. Helicopters have been dousing that end of the fire to cool it.

However, a run to the south would be much less concerning to fire managers than the other directions.

“Thankfully, that happens to be just north of the wilderness area where there are no homes, there are no businesses, there are no structures back there,” said Watrud.

While there are places that firefighters simply cannot go, he reiterated that Shoshone officials want the June Fire put out and are not letting it burn.

Firefighters have been working to extinguish the blaze since it started on the evening of Tuesday, July 18, from causes that remain “under investigation.” Fueled by hot, dry weather, it quickly burned through 1,860 acres by Thursday morning and prompted forest officials to summon Team Black.

Mother Nature lent a bit of a hand on Thursday afternoon, as rainfall slowed the fire’s growth. Meanwhile, firefighters — who came from near and far to battle the wildfire — built fire lines by hand to help prevent the fire from spreading along the North Fork corridor.

Managers want to keep the June Fire away from U.S. Highway 14/16/20, “which is a lifeline between Cody and the park, especially this time of year,” Watrud said. Drivers are asked to use caution while in the area, because of the firefighting traffic.

Fire managers do not want the June Fire to go east of the Elk Fork drainage and have developed plans to proactively conduct a burnout, if necessary and if conditions allow.

“At this time, the fire’s behaving itself,” Seekins said Sunday.

After previously hiking into the area — on what Watrud described as little more than a mountain goat trail — two 20-person hand crews were flown in to the fire’s northeastern edge on Sunday. To maximize their efficiency, the crews plan to camp in the area while they continue working on a fire line; they also contained a spot fire that jumped out of the main burn area and consumed several acres.

Beyond shuttling firefighters, helicopters on the scene have also been dropping water on the fire. On Saturday, the various choppers dumped 51,000 gallons of water; the four aircraft sucked up and dumped another 94,560 gallons on Sunday.

So-called “Super Scooper” firefighting airplanes were also summoned over the weekend, but were never used. The National Park Service agreed to close part of Yellowstone Lake on Saturday so the planes could collect water there (the Buffalo Bill Reservoir was too full of debris), but the Super Scoopers ultimately were sent on to other fires in California.

“There’s risk involved in fighting forest fires and so we don’t want to fly them unless we absolutely have to,” explained Greer.

Other firefighters spent days assessing and preparing the UXU Ranch, Blackwater Lodge, area cabins and other structures on the North Fork. They completed that structure protection work on Sunday.

“We’re looking really good and we’ve got a really good plan in the future,” Seekins said, adding, “We’ll have engines in place and leadership in place with supervisors within one hour, if that need ever comes.”

Guests and livestock at the UXU Ranch — located about 1.5 miles north of the fire’s origin — were allowed to return Sunday.

Park County Fire Marshal Sam Wilde encouraged home and business owners in the area to take steps to make their homes “fire wise” and to be ready to evacuate when necessary. North Fork residents are also encouraged to register with Park County’s “Code Red” reverse 911 notification system.

Dan Shively, who owns a cabin east of the fire on Pagoda Creek, said the firefighters who assessed his property for fire safety were “the finest group of people I’ve ever run into.”

Greer said he would pass along the compliments.

“We appreciate it,” he said.

“So do we,” said Shively.

Watrud said locals’ support of the firefighters has been noticed.

“It’s been really good going around town and just seeing the warm and welcoming of the community; firefighters are being offered cookies, coffee and just the simple things like the thank you signs around town — really touch them,” Watrud said.

Park County Commission Chairman Lee Livingston also relayed appreciation on behalf of the county.

“We’re really glad to see you here; we’re going to be really glad to see you gone,” Livingston joked to the management team.

The Elk Fork campground, Elks Fork Trail and Blackwater Memorial National Recreation Trail have all been temporarily closed because of the June Fire.

While you might assume the smoke clouding local skies is coming from the June Fire on the North Fork, wildfires in Montana are mostly to blame.

“That’s actually not from our fire,” June Fire incident Meteorologist Kari Fleegel said Sunday. “It’s from a lot of the fires that have been going on in Montana.”

InciWeb listed 21 active wildfires in Montana on Monday, including the massive, 226,000 acre Lodgepole Complex burning south of Lake Fort Peck.

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