Update on Triple Peak Fire
Smoke may be visible this week
by Dawn Ballou
October 11, 2005
With the warmer weather, residents may start seeing a little bit of smoke coming up from the Triple Peak fire again in the Wyoming Range. This fire started last Saturday, October 1st, believed to be started from an escaped warming fire in the South Cottonwood Creek drainage near Triple Peak. The fire reached 600 acres in size.
Bridger-Teton National Forest fire officials are managing this fire with a confinement strategy, using the weather and natural terrain barriers to contain the fire and monitoring the fire area daily. No personnel are currently on the blaze or actively fighting it. The plan at this point is to allow the fire burn until the weather puts it out in a "season-ending event" (that means snow or a good rain).
Forest users in the area may see some smoke from the fire area, especially this week as the weather warms. The fire is burning in an inaccessible area on the north side of South Cottonwood Creek, between Triple Peak and Lander Peak. Wind blew sparks over into North Cottonwood Creek when the fire was the most active early Sunday morning, but no smokes have been seen from those small spot fires during the week.
If the fire becomes more active, the Forest Service may send a helicopter out to take a closer look at the status. There are no closures or restrictions in effect due to this fire.
Paul Hutta, Zone Fire Management Officer for the Pinedale and Big Piney Ranger Districts of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, urged campers and hunters to use caution near the fire. Wind may blow down fire-weakened trees unexpectedly and there is still some fire burning activity occurring in the area. Forest users are also asked to be extremely careful with their campfires and any warming fires they build. Make sure all fires are completely out before leaving them.
The Bridger-Teton Forest has a prescribed burn planned for the Kemmerer Ranger District that may be lit on Friday, weather permitting. That burn is for a couple hundred acres, so smoke from the fire may be visible during the burn and over the weekend. The other prescribed burn in the vicinity is in the Soda Lake/Fremont Ridge area just north of Pinedale. Smokes from these fires don’t need to be called in to the Sheriff’s office since they and the Forest Service are already monitoring them. If you see smokes in other areas besides these, please do call them in to the Sheriff’s office to report them.
Current updates on area fire activity can also be heard on Pinedale's radio station, KPIN 101.1 FM, if conditions change or new fires are reported.
Related Links:
Triple Peak Fire
|
