Today I took some photos of action around the Fossil fire, which is about 8 miles northwest of Hot Springs, South Dakota, west of Wind Cave National Park. The last I heard, air attack was estimating the size at approximately 10 acres and the spread had been slowed.
It was a walk-in, and in addition to the firefighters on the ground, they had one single engine air tanker, one helicopter, and a dozer. A second helicopter, a national guard Blackhawk, and a heavy air tanker from Grand Junction, Colorado were also ordered; I don’t know if they ever arrived.
UPDATE at 10:30 a.m. MT Aug. 12
The local Type 3 Incident Management Team was ordered, but the fire was contained Tuesday night after burning 12 acres. Good job by the firefighters on this lightning-caused fire which initially at least, was not accessible by engines.
Oh, and the Rapid City Journal published my photo of the helicopter dipping out of the portable tank in the meadow.
A helicopter dipping at Cold Brook reservoir.
A helicopter dipping out of a portable tank near the fire. There were 3-4 water tenders shuttling water from quite a distance to keep the tanks full.
Single Engine Air Tanker #839 doing a hot refuel and reload at Hot Springs Airport.
