Castle Rock Fire information
In response to the threat the Castle Rock Fire poses, numerous offers of help have come in from throughout the greater Wood River Valley community.
· The American Red Cross has established a shelter at the Community Campus in Hailey. There, the organization will be providing cots in a common room as well as food for residents. No pets are allowed at the shelter. For further information, call (208) 243-0517.
· Numerous volunteers have also offered their assistance for fire victims. They are available to assist with housing for evacuees, pet care for dogs, cats and birds, horse care and moving trucks and volunteer labor to assist evacuees to vacate residences. Go to the Blaine County Web site at www.blainecounty.org for updated information and telephone numbers for volunteer services.
Additional information on the Castle Rock Fire is available through the following resources:
· Fire information is reportedly being provided in regular scrolling news on the following local television stations: channels 12, 13, the Weather Channel, ABC and NBC.
· The city of Ketchum reportedly brought in extra phone lines on Tuesday to accommodate extra phone traffic. The public may now call (208) 726-7811 to access up-to-the-minute fire information. City and county employees as well as federal agency staff will be ready to answer questions from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
· Current fire information can be found by logging onto federal Web sites www.inciweb.org and www.nifc.gov, or www.mtexpress.com.
With the fiercest winds behind them, at least for the time being, the nearly 600 firefighters assigned to the massive Castle Rock Fire west of Ketchum went on the offensive mid-day Tuesday in an attempt to actively rein in the blaze.
Using handheld drip torches, fire crews stationed at key points around the fire's perimeter intentionally set fire to unburned areas near Ketchum city limits, but inside pre-cut fire lines.
Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, a column of gray smoke became plainly visible on the north side of Heidelberg Hill near the terminus of the popular Shadyside Trail out Adams Gulch. Douglas fir trees occasionally went up in flames, but for the most part the controlled burn appeared to be going along as the firefighters would seem to have wished for.
The firefighters' intent was to ignite a series of "burnout" or "back burning" operations at various points along the southern, eastern and northern boundaries of the large blaze. Back burning involves firefighters igniting a fire at a control line, such as a road or trail, and allowing the controlled fire to burn back toward the actively burning wildfire.
The burn out operation is anticipated to be a three- to four-day process, fire managers reported Tuesday.
According to the most up-to-the-minute information available prior to Tuesday's controlled burn, the Castle Rock Fire had grown to approximately 12,058 acres as of Tuesday morning. During a bright and early briefing for firefighters at Sun Valley Resort's River Run Lodge Tuesday morning at 7 a.m., fire managers estimated the fire at just 6 percent containment.
One significant change in the fire's perimeter was the appearance late Monday of an approximately 100-acre spot fire mid-way up Red Warrior Creek on the south side of Warm Springs Creek Road, incident commander for the Castle Rock Fire, Jeanne Pincha-Tulley, reported Tuesday morning. Pincha-Tulley admitted the new hot spot roughly five miles southwest from the 9,151-foot summit of Bald Mountain is close to Sun Valley's popular ski slopes on the north and east sides of the peak. North to south, the spot fire is apparently also close to the major ridgeline that separates streams that drain into Warm Springs Creek from those draining into the Greenhorn Gulch area.
Pincha-Tulley and her California Interagency Incident Command Team took over control of the Castle Rock Fire at 6 a.m. Monday, Aug. 20.
Despite the fire's concerning proximity to the renowned ski area, Pincha-Tulley said fire managers remain most concerned with the blaze's closeness to homes in the vicinity of lower Warm Springs Creek, Adams Gulch, Hulen Meadows and Fox Creek. She said the top priority Tuesday was still to construct fire line between Ketchum and the advancing fire.
The hundreds of homes in the threatened areas west and north of Ketchum are collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
"We've got to get around this community," Pincha-Tulley said.
She said the Castle Rock Fire's proximity near Bald Mountain isn't being ignored. She said fire managers are looking for opportunities to use equipment to build fire line near the Red Warrior Creek spot fire.
After the spot fire was discovered around 6 p.m. on Aug. 20, firefighters reportedly attacked it with water drops from helicopters and retardant from air tankers.
During a news conference in Ketchum Tuesday afternoon, Blaine County Commissioner Tom Bowman said that from what he has heard, fire officials are in contact with representatives of the Sun Valley Co. regarding the fire's proximity to Bald Mountain.
"What I understand is that operations is working closely with the Sun Valley Co.," Bowman said.
In anticipation of Tuesday afternoon's burnout operation, firefighters using pilaskis, shovels and other hand tools constructed an extensive network of 3-foot-wide fire line north of the Warm Springs neighborhood in the days leading up to the action. Elsewhere, heavy equipment operators reportedly bulldozed a lengthy, continuous section of wider fire line from the south end of Heidelberg Hill through Adams Gulch and nearly to Fox Creek, fire officials said around noon on Tuesday.
Fire managers are well aware of the high regard Wood River Valley residents have for the backcountry recreation areas currently threatened by the Castle Rock Fire, Pincha-Tulley said.
"The public around here loves this country," she said.
At last count Tuesday, a reported 590 firefighters hailing from various points around the country were assigned to the Castle Rock Fire. Included in this count were five Type 1 20-person hand crews, nine Type 2, 20-person hand crews, three heavy lift helicopters, one medium lift helicopter and at least 27 fire engines.
It's "a lot of staff," said Pincha-Tulley, adding that more firefighting resources are on order, but how soon they may arrive in such an extreme fire season remains to be seen.
Also Tuesday, Bowman said fire officials have told him how extensively the controlled burnouts burn is largely up to the weather.
If everything goes as firefighters hope, the burnout will be a low intensity, slow-moving burn that stays near the ground, Bowman said. However, if the weather turns for the worse, flames could reach up and begin burning in the forest crown, he said.
"Then it will look like Fisher Creek," Bowman said.
The more accurate acreage counts released during the past two days for the Castle Rock Fire have been generated from the air after nightfall using infrared imaging.
In addition to the Red Warrior spot fire, a combination of critically dry fuels and gusting winds reportedly sent burning embers up to a mile ahead of the main fire front on Sunday and ignited a large spot fire in the Fox Creek drainage, fire officials said. Another separate spot fire is also "well established" in the upper reaches of Adams Gulch, fire officials said Monday.
The extent of flames in the Adams Gulch area were quite visible on Monday and Tuesday as numerous smoke columns large and small became visible on the north-facing timbered slopes. Smoke columns were plainly visible even in the lower portions of Adams Gulch below Eve Gulch.
On a bright note, despite the volatile nature of the Castle Rock Fire, no structures in the most threatened areas along Warm Springs Creek have been lost so far, officials reported.
At 4 p.m. Sunday, a mandatory evacuation order was issued for all of Warm Springs Road west of Ketchum city limits. The order, issued with the authority of the governor's office, does not pertain to areas inside the city limits.
At the same time, the city of Ketchum issued notice that residents of Gates Road near Warm Springs Village and to the east on Warm Springs Road to Short Swing Lane should be prepared to evacuate. Warm Springs Road west of the first bridge has been closed to all but local traffic. The voluntary evacuation was also enlarged to include the west side of state Highway 75 from the north Ketchum city limits to mile marker 134 at Fox Creek.
Bowman said he is actively consulting with Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall about the possibility of further evacuations. Any further calls for mandatory evacuations will be left to Hall, Bowman said.
"I am not going to make any calls for Ketchum," he said.
An approximately 120,000-acre closure area instituted by the Sawtooth National Forest over the weekend covers forest lands extending from south to north between the Deer Creek drainage and Baker Creek and from east to west between Highway 75 and the Blaine County line. The closure includes the trails on Bald Mountain, Adams Gulch, Fox Creek, Chocolate Gulch and Oregon Gulch.
In terms of their priorities during the coming days, firefighters will continue to try and keep the Castle Rock Fire to the west and south of Highway 75, east of Baker Creek, Cunard Gulch, Barr Gulch and Rough Canyon, and north of the major ridgeline between Warm Springs Creek and Greenhorn Gulch. Their other major objective will be the continued protection of structures in the three Ketchum-area neighborhoods the fire is threatening.
Due to the changing conditions of the Castle Rock Fire, fire officials are also asking residents in the areas of Greenhorn Gulch, Cathedral Pines and Easley Hot Springs to protect their homes. The officials said residents in these areas should prepare their homes by removing wood and other fuels away from their houses and removing items from decks.
Following the issuance by Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter of a statewide disaster emergency declaration Monday, up to three dozen Idaho Air National Guard personnel were reportedly dispatched to assist Blaine County authorities at four local traffic control points. On Sunday, Otter also authorized Blaine County officials to use their discretion in ordering evacuations from wildfire-threatened areas along Warm Springs Road west of Gates Road near Warm Springs Village.
Weather-wise, fire managers seemed somewhat upbeat Tuesday morning.
Rob Balfour, part of the Type 1 incident management team from southern California sent to manage the fire, said winds should drop off to some degree, at least in the short term. Windy conditions will primarily be of the up slope, up-canyon variety, Balfour said.
"That trend will continue into tomorrow," he said.
Frenchman?s Bend resident Michael Stoneback, lowest on the ladder, helps water down the roof of his house Saturday as the Castle Rock Fire advances. Photo by Willy Cook
