Since Thursday, the Grizzly Creek fire has grown approximately 150 acres between the west side of Grizzly Creek drainage and No Name drainage. Spot fires also occurred on the east side of the upper Grizzly Creek drainage and ground crews are working to contain these spots. Please do not report smoke visible from area communities.
The fire is now 32,631 acres and 91 percent contained.
Additional resources were called in Friday to engage the new fire activity: air attack, 2 Large Air Tankers, 1 Very Large Air Tanker, 2 Single Engine Air Tankers, a type 3 helicopter, type 1 helicopter, White River Wildfire module, California Eagle Lake Wildfire Module, Montana BLM type 6 engine, a type 2 Initial Attack crew, and an additional type 2 crew arriving on Saturday.
“Fire behavior today has not showed much growth in acres. Mostly some isolated torching” said Incident Commander Dan Nielsen. “Please respect the area closure of the fire perimeter and remember the White River National Forest and BLM in this area are in Stage 1 fire restrictions.” Nielsen elaborated that the plan is to suppress the fire with ground resources where it is safe to do so. Air resources to the west side of Grizzly Creek will be utilized to slow fire growth. The plan for additional resources to staff the fire will continue to evolve depending on precipitation from this weekend’s predicted snow fall.
If you are hunting, camping or recreating in the area be alerted to changing fire behavior, respect the closure area, and follow Stage 1 fire restrictions which prohibit campfires outside of designated fire rings.