VIDEO FROM THE AIR: Grassy Ridge Fire burns nearly 104,000 acres
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DUBOIS — The Grassy Ridge Fire has burned 103,935 acres as of Monday morning and is 20 percent contained. Nearly 200 personnel are on scene helping to fight the fire, which started Thursday due to lightning.
Fire crews completed firing/burning operations and completion of containment lines in the northwest section of the fire Sunday. They continued to secure and patrol the lines until midnight and a contingent of engines remained the rest of the night to patrol the lines to ensure they were holding.
Along the rest of the fire, crews walked and “cold-trailed” many miles of containment line and the numerous active fingers of fire activity. Cold-trailing is where fire fighters physically walk the containment lines and search for pockets of heat. They put them out for a depth to ensure that no errant sparks can be fanned to life by the wind and tossed across containment lines to start a new fire.
GALLERY: Photos of the Grassy Ridge Fire from the EastIdahoNews.com helicopter
Around 150 people attended a public meeting in Dubois Sunday night regarding the Grassy Ridge Fire. Team 3 Operations Chief Mike Friend provided an overview of the current fire situation and short term plans for continued suppression activities.
Agency Administrator Jeremy Casterson of the Bureau of Land Management, Incident Commander Taiga Rohrer and Clark County Sheriff May addressed the group.
The weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday looks hotter and drier. Temperatures are forecast to be fix to six degrees warmer today with humidity down to ten percent. This may result in a little stronger than normal afternoon winds out of the south at 10-12 mph. The impact on the light, flashy fuels may result in numerous flareups and the appearance of interior smoke columns as islands of unburnt fuels are consumed.
These “islands” are one of the priorities as efforts to secure and “cold-trail” fire containment lines continue.
As the containment lines are ensured, firefighters will be turning their efforts towards construction of containment lines and cold-trailing them around the multiple islands or pockets of unburnt fuels.
Stay with EastIdahoNews.com for updates.