Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Fire

Once again, Yellowstone is on fire. The big fire this year is the Colombine Fire, located in the backcountry not too far from the east gate. Fire danger reached a serious point two nights ago when the Park Service was forced to close the east entrance road from Pelican Creek to the gate. The road reopened this morning, but there is the distinct possibility that they will have to close it again. We have high winds and thunderstorms predicted every day for the next few days.

Did I mention there are only 79 firefighters assigned to fight this fire? Someone from the fire management team came to the hotel this afternoon with a copy of the map showing the fire's progression, and he told us that there are 200+ fires burning in the US with no one to fight them. They just can't find enough firefighters. So, they can do little more than keep an eye on this one, hoping it doesn't get to the big, multi-million dollar summer homes built in the mountains right outside the park. They dump water and fire retardent from planes when they can, but the winds frequently force them to abandon the effort.

I took these pictures from Yellowstone Lake at Grant Village. They are of the smoke column from the Promontory Fire complex--three small, lightening-caused fires that also started last Thursday (the same day as the Colombine Fire) on a peninsula that juts into the south part of the lake. These fires are being allowed to burn, since they are in a remote part of the park and no threat to people or infrastructure, though the Park Service is keeping an eye on them.

No comments: