August 2nd 2021, Salmon Complex SR Community Liaison Fire Update
There has been a lot of fire activity since my last update. The three fires that are really putting out heat and growth in the Salmon River are Cronan Fire, Summer Fire, and Haypress Fire.
Cronan Fire:
Last estimated at ~150 acres yesterday, it looks like it has grown a bit since then. The head of the fire as of yesterday was at the upper Garden Gulch Trailhead. The fire seems to be mostly moving NE into upper Garden Gulch drainage. It appears that it will continue to move in this direction. It is burning in the 2013 Salmon Complex fire footprint. Crew 4, Egine 345 and a falling module make up the North Fork Division, and are keeping an eye on this fire and assessing if there is a need for structure protection.
South Fork Fires:
Shadow Fire: A fire popped up in Shadow Creek that was a high priority due to resources at risk. Crews worked this yesterday and through the night, They got it lined and a hose lay in and feel pretty good about it going into today.
Haypress Fire: Estimated at ~400 acres as of yesterday evening, this fire has grow considerably and is continuing to grow as a pretty fast pace. It is backing more towards the NW into Henry’s Gulch in the Taylor Creek drainage, but also moving in upper Garden Gulch on the South Fork. The Fire is moving in heavy timber, and fire personnel are hoping to be able to knock it back a bit and slow its progress if they can get air resources to dump water on the edge where it is moving towards Rush Creek. The fire was around 1.5 miles out from Taylor Creek properties at around 4am this morning. JUST IN: Haypress Fire seems to be spotting out ahead a half mile or so and is much closer to properties in Taylor Creek area than thought.
Summer Fire: This Fire was reported at 50 acres yesterday but has clearly increased in size a lot since then. New intel indicates that it is also moving quite fast down hill and spotting out ahead of itself about 1/2 mile.
Both Summer and Haypress Fires seem to be blowing up at the moment and are being wind driven downhill. This is a scary situation, please stay attentive and consider getting your livestock to a safer location. With very few resources on the fire, and new fires popping up everyday, no structure protection has been done at this point. See Haypress Fire photos from the same spot yesterday and today.
EVAUTION WARNINGS: There is currently an EVACUATION WARNING IN PLACE for Taylor Creek neighborhoods and the Upper South Fork Neighborhoods. There will likely be an MANDATORY EVACUATION for those areas coming out today. There is also an EVACUATION WARNING in place for Forks of Salmon and Sawyers Bar, the USFS was not aware that this was going into pace yesterday and were as surprised as I was when the warning went out. UPDATE: MANDATORY EVACUATION was just release for the Taylor Creek and surrounding neighborhoods on the South Fork Salmon River.
There is a Type II team coming in to take over the fire tomorrow. They are shadowing fire personnel tomorrow. Hopefully this will allow for more resources. There was word of a fire camp being set up at the Petersburg Fire Station in the upper South Fork but that location might change depending on the fire activity and number of resources. A main camp is starting to setup in Etna.
ROAD CLOSURES: There is a Road Closure on the Yellowjacket/Garden Gulch road (40N51) and the Cherry Creek Road on the North Fork. There is also a Road Closure on the 37N07 road to China Gulch Trailhead.
All maps are from heat detections from around 4am this morning. Remember that satellite heat detections are approximate and the red or orange circles around them are not fire polygons, but the margin of error.
Stay safe and vigilant,
.
Karuna Greenberg
Salmon River Community Liaison
Restoration Director
Salmon River Restoration Council
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