Clear, 35° F
The fire is located 3 miles west of Hunter Peak and 3 miles south of Squaw Creek.
Evacuation orders for County Road XUX and the Squaw Creek area — which are home to a number of cabins — remain in place, said Shoshone National Forest …
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Firefighters are battling two new wildfires in the area that have grown in recent days.
The Hunter Peak Fire burning in the Crandall area is at 1,347 acres as of this morning (Thursday).
The fire is located 3 miles west of Hunter Peak and 3 miles south of Squaw Creek.
Evacuation orders for County Road XUX and the Squaw Creek area — which are home to a number of cabins — remain in place, said Shoshone National Forest spokeswoman Kristie Salzmann. No structures have been lost, but 95 structures are currently threatened by the fire.
There will be a public meeting tonight (Thursday) at 6 p.m. at the Painter Store in Crandall.
Crews will focus on continuing structure preparation and point protection as well as putting out any spot fires that may crop up. If conditions allow, burnout operations are being planned on the north and east sides of the fire, according to InciWeb.
A variety of firefighting resources are already on the scene or have been ordered for the Hunter Peak Fire, Salzmann said. A Type 1 Incident Management Team — the most highly-trained type of team — took command of the Hunter Peak Fire at 6 a.m. this morning.
Two Super Scooper aircraft returned to the area Wednesday afternoon to help fight the Hunter Peak Fire; they're dipping water out of Buffalo Bill Reservoir once again. The speed limit for the North Fork highway along the reservoir has been lowered to 45 mph with no stopping allowed. The reservoir will also be closed west of the line running between Eagle Point and Spring Creek.
The cause of the Hunter Peak Fire remains under investigation.
Meanwhile, a fire burning southwest of Meeteetse is estimated at 1,000 acres as of this morning. The Twin Lakes Fire is burning on Bureau of Land Management land. Hand crews, engines and aerial support are currently on scene.
The fire had previously been called the Babaganoush Fire. The fire's new name reflects its geographic proximity to Twin Lakes on the Shoshone National Forest — and, as the BLM noted on its Facebook page today, it’s also easier to spell.
The new fires came as crews were nearing full containment of the Whit Fire, which has consumed more than 12,387 acres near the North and South Forks of the Shoshone River. Some 84 percent of the Whit Fire's perimeter has been contained.
