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West Mountain Fires Daily Update September 14, 2024 09-14-2024
Snag Fire, Goat Fire, Dollar Fire
Publication Type: News - 09/14/2024 - 09:51
Snag Fire, 11 miles E of Cascade, 33,299 acres, 25% contained, https://tinyurl.com/4k9dk3mu
Dollar Fire,18 NE of Cascade, 4,359 acres, 8% contained, https://tinyurl.com/bef6r3tz
Goat Fire, 11 miles SE of Cascade, 26,393 acres, 0% contained, https://tinyurl.com/2h4a3dvr
Cause: Lightning (All Fires)
Personnel 489
EVACUATIONS: Please check Valley County Sheriff’s Office Facebook or call dispatch at 208-382-5160.
Weather and Fire Behavior: The warming and drying pattern continues with highs ranging from the upper 50s to the middle 70s. Expect a mix of sun and clouds, but precipitation is not expected. Winds will generally be from the southwest by early afternoon with gusts up to 15 mph possible. The drier air will allow afternoon humidity values to fall into the 20s and 30s. Sunday will bring similar weather, and isolated showers and thunderstorms are possible overnight into Monday morning. Beginning Monday, a deep trough of low pressure will move into the area brining widespread, prolonged precipitation across the fires. There is an 80% chance of greater than 1/2” of precipitation between Monday and Wednesday with some areas expected to receive in excess of 1” of moisture. Thunderstorms are possible on Monday as well. Today, there could be a slight uptick in fire spread due to the drying of fine fuels, but overall, fire behavior should be limited to creeping and smoldering with some isolated torching possible.
Dollar Fire:
- The Dollar Fire has some interior burning but little growth. There will be some suppression repair activities taking place on the Dollar Fire as conditions allow. Fire Suppression Repair is a series of immediate post-fire actions taken to repair damages and minimize potential soil erosion and impacts resulting from fire suppression activities. The main goal of suppression repair is to stabilize disturbed soils as much as possible. This work repairs the hand and dozer fire lines, roads, trails, staging areas, safety zones, and drop points used during fire suppression efforts.
Snag Fire:
- Most of the remaining heat in the Snag Fire is in the north side.
- Crews continue patrolling the western side of the fire and are assessing for when more containment may be added in this area, and they are beginning some backhaul (removal of unneeded equipment).
- Near the southern tip of the Snag Fire, off the 409 Rd, crews will be monitoring the pile burns that were performed a couple of days ago in an effort to remove fuel from this area.
- On the east side, fire managers are finalizing structure plans for the Fish Hatchery and Warm Lake areas.
Goat Fire:
- Firefighters continue scouting for options to build line that will connect the 417 Road to the 409 Road, and then tie it all back into the Snag fire, to effectively isolate both fires from the Horsethief area. Crews are constructing both direct and indirect line to accomplish this objective and are working to connect the gap between the northern-most point of the Goat Fire and the southern-most tip of the Snag Fire.
- Firefighters are widening the 409 road to make this a larger fuel break to help with the above objective.
- Masticators will be working along the northwest edge of the Goat Fire today to help firefighters in their efforts to remove fuel and secure line.
- Further north, there are plans to construct a dozer line from the Horsethief Rd. back toward the Snag fire to cut off northward and westward progression of the Goat Fire.
- A structure protection group remains in the Horsethief Reservoir preparing structures and plumbing the area.