A fire smolders on Sunday, July 8, 2007, near Hot Springs, S.D. A state official said the blaze is the most intense wildfire ever recorded in the Black Hills. (AP Photo/Joe Kafka)
Posted on 07/09/2007 9:33:01 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
HOT SPRINGS, S.D. – Overnight rain and cooler temperatures slowed a wildfire that had raced out of a canyon, destroyed 27 houses and killed a homeowner who went back to try to save his belongings, a top fire official said early Monday.
The change in weather gave firefighters a chance to shore up their fire lines, though conditions could shift again for the worse, state wildland fire coordinator Joe Lowe told crews at a morning briefing held in light rain.
“This fire is not over yet,” he cautioned. “This fire could come back to life again.”
The blaze was started by lightning on Saturday, and by Monday it had covered an estimated 11 square miles just southwest of Hot Springs, on the southern side of the Black Hills. It was 20 percent contained and crews expected to have it fully contained by Thursday.
Other fires blackened the landscape in California, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Colorado, Montana and Oregon, many of them also started by lightning and fueled by the dry conditions, made worse by a heat wave that sizzled across the West last week.
In addition to the death in South Dakota, smoke from a major Utah fire was blamed for two deaths in a weekend motorcycle accident, and another blaze still active in Utah killed three people last week.
Crews in California's eastern Sierra Nevada gained ground against a fire that had charred at least 34,000 acres, or 53 square miles, in the Inyo National Forest.
That fire was 15 percent contained Sunday after cooler temperatures and lighter wind allowed firefighters to make their first real progress, Inyo National Forest spokesman Nancy Upham said.
The flames skirted the popular John Muir Wilderness and destroyed at least one home outside Independence. Crews worked to protect major power transmission lines in the area feeding the eastern Sierra front and greater Los Angeles, fire information officer Jim Wilkins said.
A wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest in Southern California blackened more than 6,500 acres in rural hills Sunday in Santa Barbara County.
A water-dropping helicopter crashed near the Los Padres fire and two pilots suffered minor injuries, Santa Barbara County Fire Captain Eli Iskow said.
The biggest wildfire in Utah history had charged across 283,000 acres or 442 square miles of extremely dry sagebrush, cheat grass and pinion juniper in the central part of the state.
“This fire just ran away from us, and we couldn't put a dent in it,” said Mike Melton, fire management officer for Utah's Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.
The fire was right along Interstate 15 on Sunday, closing 60 miles of the highway between Interstate 70 near Cove Fort and Beaver for nearly five hours, Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Winward said.
A fire in southern Arizona had blackened about 3,500 acres in the mountains near the telescope complex at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. Air tankers dropped retardant between the fire and the observatory, and fire trucks were stationed at the mountaintop facility, officials reported.
In Nevada, about 1,500 evacuees from Winnemucca were allowed home hours after a 25,000-acre wildfire destroyed an electrical substation and several outbuildings, shut down Interstate 80, delayed trains and killed livestock. The fire was 10 percent contained Sunday evening. No injuries were reported.
“It was a huge wall of flame coming at the homes. It's amazing that no homes were lost,” Humboldt County Undersheriff Curtiss Kull said Sunday.
A 45,000-acre fire in Idaho was contained Saturday, officials said. Crews on Sunday raced to repair fire-damaged transmission lines that threatened to cause rotating power failures.
Associated Press writers Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco, Raquel Maria Dillon and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City, Martin Griffith in Reno, Nev., and Keith Ridler in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.
A fire smolders on Sunday, July 8, 2007, near Hot Springs, S.D. A state official said the blaze is the most intense wildfire ever recorded in the Black Hills. (AP Photo/Joe Kafka)
Alabaugh Fire Now 11 Square Miles - 07/09/2007 9:42 AM
http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=0,58625
Update: Alabaugh Fire now covers over 11 square miles.
Nearly 270 firefighters are waking up to better conditions at the scene of a wildfire near Hot Springs that covers more than seven-and-a-half square miles. It rained overnight and the winds have died down.
The Alabaugh Fire has killed a homeowner who returned to his house, injured two firefighters, destroyed 27 homes and 50 outbuildings, and forced the evacuation of 50 houses. State officials say high winds yesterday made the fire grow and complicated their efforts.
Crews have contained 20 percent of the fire and expect to have it fully contained by Thursday. State Highway 71 remains closed.
Lightning sparked the fire on Saturday evening. About 12,000 lightning strikes were recorded across southeast Wyoming, southwest South Dakota and northwest Nebraska and several of those sparked fires.
Milford Flats Fire: The blaze breaks Utah’s record and keeps growing past 300,000 acres, freeway closures
Updated: 10:18 AM- KANOSH - The largest wildfire in Utah history grew only bigger this morning, topping 300,000 acres as fresh crews rushed to the blackened high deserts and grasslands of southcentral Utah.
Full Story
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6330065
Thanks for posting this information. Hubby and I are making an overnight run from the California Central Valley to Southeastern Idaho tomorrow evening. Looks like we will be passing six or seven of those blazes. I only hope the interstate doesn’t close. We are to be at a wedding Wednesday morning and we have very little leeway for delays.
It’s ugly. The valley air up north here is brown. Ugly.
Nice map! I went to their site, and the campground we were just at (in the Inyo Natl Forest) two weekends ago has been evacuated. What a shame. Glad we were able to get back there before it burned, and very glad our Lord kept his protection around us and stayed those fires until we were safely away from there!
At least all the trees are harvestable.
Does it make your clothes stink?
Wildfires burning across Idaho
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/global/story.asp?s=6765518
Associated Press - July 9, 2007 6:54 PM ET
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Fire crews are working to put out wildfires across the state.
The Warm Springs fire in the Payette National Forest has grown to 28,000 acres, officials with the National Interagency Coordination Center reported today. That’s 13,000 acres more than yesterday. There are 92 firefighters working on the blaze, and fire managers hope to have it completely contained by Thursday.
In the Sawtooth National Forest, the Black Pine Two fire is burning on nearly 45,000 acres of grass and brush about eleven miles southeast of Malta. Fire officials say that blaze is threatening some structures in the area, and it was spreading rapidly this morning.
Firefighters have the 45,000 acre Red Bridge grass fire on Bureau of Land Management property near Shoshone nearly contained. Containing that fire has cost an estimated $300,000 so far.
Can’t tell, but it makes my eyes water and my asthmatic kid cough.
This is so disgusting....most of it unnecessary. I’m giving lightening a little leeway...that’s it.
I agree, glock. Tie them to the trees.
Save a few of these eco terrorists to be tied to dead trees in California and Oregon.
We had planned to drive to Montana and the Yellowstone Area this week and stay in that area about a week.
Then drive back through Idaho and Oregon.
My wife is recovering from a back injury, and we decided that trip might not be best this year. So we have a different area to visit.
When would you estimate the latest we should do that Alaska loop based on typical weather conditions? I'm thinking no later than late September for Fairbanks... Can't remember if Alaska gets "Indian Summer." But then it's probably called "Eskimo Summer" up there, right???
How can that be? Little Tommy Dasshole relieved the GovernMental EnvironMental restrictions in SD without ANY screaming by NRDC, et al... and supposedly allowed thinning and cleaning in the Black Hills, which are truly black, now!!!
You need to ask some of the Canadian Freepers that question.
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