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West Mountain Fires Daily Update September 15, 2024 09-15-2024
Snag Fire, Goat Fire, Dollar Fire
Publication Type: Announcement - 09/15/2024 - 08:41
Snag Fire, 11 miles E of Cascade, 33,300 acres, 27% contained, https://tinyurl.com/4k9dk3mu
Dollar Fire, 18 NE of Cascade, 4,360 acres, 8% contained, https://tinyurl.com/bef6r3tz
Goat Fire, 11 miles SE of Cascade, 26,456 acres, 0% contained, https://tinyurl.com/2h4a3dvr
Cause: Lightning (All Fires)
Personnel: 695
Special Note: Today is the last workday for Army crews from the 14th Brigade Engineer Battalion based at Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM). The Sierra Pacific Jets will transport the soldiers back to JBLM in Washington state on Tuesday, September 17. The fire management team is grateful for the opportunity to have partnered with the military in this way.
Weather and Fire Behavior: Today, the temperature highs should be in the mid 60s, with a minimum relative humidity of 29%. Winds are predicted from the SW at 6-10 mph with gusts to 20 mph. Isolated showers and thunderstorms may begin in the evening, going through the night into Monday morning. There should be a break from precipitation during the day, with showers returning Monday night through Tuesday with predictions from 1/2” to 1”. The remaining week should remain cool and humid. Yesterday, clouds moved in, and this moderated fire behavior even more than predicted. Very little activity is predicted again today with mostly smoldering and maybe small amounts of creeping.
Dollar Fire:
- The Dollar Fire remains unstaffed overall, however, suppression repair activities will occur in conjunction with guidance from Resource Advisors. Today, this repair will focus particularly on handline rehabilitation.
- 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.
Snag Fire:
- Firefighters are backhauling equipment from the Warm Lake Rd. area. Helicopters assisted in this equipment removal yesterday by hauling out “sling loads” – nets filled with cargo and suspended from a line. This is utilized when equipment is in hard to access places.
- Crews continue patrolling along the Warm Lake Rd. on the northwest side of the fire.
- To the northeast, firefighters have completed structure assessments in the Warm Lake and Fish Hatchery area and continue with structure preparation efforts.
- To the southeast, firefighters will assess Rice Peak Lookout to determine if it needs structure protection efforts.
- On the west side, structure assessments and protection efforts continue in the Horsethief area.
- Today, crews will begin constructing a dozer line from the west edge of the Snag Fire toward the Horsethief Reservoir and are scouting for another dozer line further south on Horsethief Rd heading northeast back toward the fire’s edge. Masticators will work in conjunction with dozers to clear fuel from these lines.
- Near the southern tip of the Snag Fire, off the 409 Rd, crews are mopping up from the pile burning performed a few days ago to remove fuel from this area.
Goat Fire:
- Crews are working to connect the gap between the northern-most point of the Goat Fire and the southern-most tip of the Snag Fire with a combination of dozer and handline.
- Near the northwest edge of the fire, there are multiple small UTV roads and trails winding through the area. Crews are working to improve and piece these roads and trails together, constructing a combination of indirect and direct line along this northeastern edge.
- On the west side of the Goat Fire, firefighters continue scouting for options to build line that will connect the 099 Trail to the 417 Road and then to the 409 Road.
- Firefighters are widening the 409 road to make this a larger fuel break to help with the above objective.