Hay Creek Fire management transitions back to local crews
A firefighter soaks down the vegetation on the south side of the Hay Creek Road early on in the battle.
Personnel on the Hay Creek fire will transition back to a local Type III team today. The spike camps at Home Ranch Bottoms and at Cyclone will move out by day’s end.
The fire had been managed the past couple of weeks by a Type II team out of California.
In that time span they continued to put in shaded fuel breaks along the Hay Creek Road, the Spruce Creek Road and the Red Meadow Road.
Crews were expected to complete the last fuel break on Red Meadow Road soon, said public information officer Lee Beyer. There was about a half-mile left to complete.
The fire has shown virtually no growth since an inch of rain fell over it on Sunday and Monday.
More rain is in the forecast for early next week, with cooler temperatures and highs in the 70s most everyday — a departure from the daily upper 80s and 90s we’ve been having.
Most fire growth has been due to burnouts — operations where firefighters purposefully burn an area to keep the fire from spreading and to strengthen fire lines.
The fire was started by lightning on July 21 and is listed at 2,894 acres. It is 30% contained. To date, there has been about 754,940 gallons of water dropped on the fire and the fuel breaks resulted in about 150 truckloads of logs, which will be sold later in the year.
Under the Type II team, there were 183 people on the fire, but after the transition, about 75 or so will remain, Beyer said.
The fire danger is still very high and as a reminder, all campfires are banned under stage II fire restrictions.