Above: Final official map of the Cottonwood Fire, produced by the Incident Management Team.
The Cottonwood Fire that started 12 miles east of Wall, South Dakota has been contained. After GPS mapping the 16-mile long fire the incident management team determined it had burned 41,360 acres. Jim Strain, the South Dakota Chief Fire Management Officer, said most of those acres were burned during the first eight hours. And according to Darren Clabo, the South Dakota State Fire Meteorologist, it is the fifth largest on record in the state.
Tuesday night the local Type 3 Incident Management Team was released and turned the fire over to the Wall, Interior, Philip, and Kadoka Fire Departments, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, and Buffalo Gap National Grassland.
Livestock losses reported to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office stand at 137 as no additional losses were reported to the team.
The map shows the APPROXIMATE location of the Cottonwood Fire, based on a satellite image from October 18, 2016. The thin green lines are county borders, and the thicker green line at lower-left is Badlands National Park. We made this before the Incident Management Team produced their final more accurate map.
Mr. Clabo sent the tweet below when the estimated size of the fire was 31,000 acres.
It took me a few seconds to figure out what I was seeing in this very interesting photo taken by Marta Kroger at the Sacata Fire. It appears to be the shadow of a fire lookout tower projected onto smoke, presumably from the fire, and probably very late in the day or just after sunrise. But I’m at a loss to explain the rainbow effect around the shadow. It’s almost like the tower acted as a prism.
The fire is on the Sierra National Forest 26 air miles northeast of Fresno, California. More information about the fire is here.
Above: Hicks Creek Fire October 17, 2016. Screen grab from Inciweb video.
The Hicks Creek Fire has burned about 1,100 acres four miles south of Cedar City Utah. The cause is under investigation but a private landowner checking on a smoldering pile of logging debris initially reported it.
From Inciweb:
Firefighters responded at that time and based on dozer lines and other containment features, planned to suppress the fire beginning the following morning. High winds after midnight caused the fire to escape containment resulting in rapid growth and a call for resources.
Strong winds are expected to continue through Tuesday.
The main reason we wanted to tell you about the Hicks Creek Fire was to show you this video. The narrator uses Google Earth to show us around the fire. This is a great idea, and was even enhanced with embedded video and still photos.
Map of the Hicks Creek Fire at 9:46 p.m. MDT October 17, 2016.
The National Weather Service has posted Red Flag Warnings or Fire Weather Watches for areas in Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, California, Oklahoma, and Colorado.
The Red Flag map was current as of 10:03 a.m. MDT on Monday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts and maps.
(Click HERE to view our most recent article about the Junkins Fire.)
(UPDATED at 4:31 p.m. MDT October 19, 2016)
The Junkins fire west of Pueblo, Colorado, according to mapping on October 18, has burned 16,832 acres. Fire officials said Wednesday a shortage of firefighting resources is slowing the construction of firelines and the containment of the fire. In fact, they are saying firefighters have not contained any of the fire.
It started during strong winds on October 17 when a power line failed and hit a barbed wire fence.
A Type 1 Incident Management Team from the Great Basis assumed command of the fire on Wednesday.
The Junkins Fire 21 air miles west of Pueblo, Colorado had burned 15,751 acres when mapped by one of the state’s Multi-Mission Aircraft at 7 p.m. on Monday. The fire continued to spread after that flight, particularly on the south and the northeast sides, and an updated acreage should be available after it is mapped again this morning.
Much of the activity of the firefighters has been defensive, staging firefighting resources well outside the fire perimeter to protect structures. Tuesday afternoon should bring winds out of the southwest and east, so a priority will be the structures along Highway 96.
The Tuesday forecast for the fire area also includes temperatures in the low 60’s, relative humidity in the low 20’s, and partly cloudy skies.
Planning Operations Section Chief Dan Dallas briefing about the Junkins Fire Tuesday Morning. Screen grab from Incident Management Team video. The gray shaded area on the right side is the 2005 Mason Fire. (The highway numbers were added by Wildfire Today.)
Some of the geographic Divisions are larger than desired due to a shortage of resources, according to Planning Operations Section Chief Dan Dallas.
East of County Road 387 the fire has burned into the large scar from the 2005 Mason Fire, slowing the spread. Monday night one of the most active sections of the fire was on the northeast side, between County Road 387 and the fire scar.
The county Sheriff said another residence burned Monday night, bringing the total up to two homes and 5 outbuildings that have burned.
Tuesday morning 114 personnel were assigned to the fire. Aircraft being used include 2 large air tankers, 4 single engine air tankers, 2 large helitankers, 2 national guard helicopters, a lead plane, and the Multi-Mission Aircraft. Operations Section Chief Dallas said he expected the aircraft will be used more heavily today than yesterday.
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(UPDATED at 6:30 p.m. MDT October 17, 2017)
The Junkins Fire about 25 miles west of Pueblo, Colorado has burned about 13,300 acres according to a 3:30 p.m. update from fire officials. Approximately 80 personnel are on scene. One residence and three outbuildings have been destroyed. Part of the fire has spread into a an old burn from 2005, which slowed the progress of the fire in that area.
A Type 3 Incident Management Team is running the fire now, but a Type 1 Team has been ordered.
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(UPDATED at 12:34 p.m. MDT October 17, 2016)
A fire that was reported at 3:40 a.m. MDT on Monday has already burned thousands of acres and forced evacuations about 29 miles west of Pueblo, Colorado. The Westcliffe Daily Record reported at 10:46 that the Junkins Fire has blackened approximately 11,000 acres. It is burning in the general vicinity of McKenzie Junction, the intersection of Highways 165 and 96, eight miles southwest of Wetmore.
Map showing the location of the Junkins Fire at 11 a.m. MDT October 17, 2016. The map was produced by the state of Colorado, but Wildfire Today added the highway numbers and other large black text.
Preliminary map of the perimeter of the Cottonwood Fire, October 17, 2016. The red line was determined with the use of a GPS receiver. The rest of the perimeter is approximate.
Rain in the late afternoon and early evening on Monday helped firefighters working on the Cottonwood Fire 12 miles east of Wall, South Dakota.
Crews were able to assess damaged and destroyed structures inside the perimeter of the fire and it was determined that no primary residences were destroyed. An exact number of cabins, outbuildings and other structures that burned will be determined on Tuesday.
The incident management team anticipates 100 percent containment by the end of the operational period today at 6:00 pm MDT.
Incident Commander Brian Daunt addresses day shift at briefing Monday morning. The night shift had a busy night. Expecting more of the same today. pic.twitter.com/D3d4G4AYoD
The incident management team on the Cottonwood Fire 12 miles southeast of Wall, South Dakota at 4 p.m. today estimated that about 31,000 acres have burned, with the benefit of better mapping and the ability to evaluate the fire perimeter in the daylight. The team still intends to map the perimeter with a GPS receiver to finalize the data.
At about 6:10 p.m. MDT on Monday it was raining on at least part of the fire.
In addition to the 137 head of cattle that have been reported killed, structures were destroyed but the number of them has not been released.
There are no road closures in effect at this time and Interstate 90 currently has no restrictions in the fire area. Smoke should no longer pose a risk to motorists. The fire area will be clearly visible to travelers on I-90.
There are currently nearly 100 personnel working on the fire. At its peak, close to 300 firefighters were fighting the fire.
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(UPDATED at 9:20 p.m. MDT October 16, 2016)
The name of the fire that started about 12 miles southeast of Wall, South Dakota has been changed from “131” to “Cottonwood”.
The fire is currently being managed by the Pennington County Type 3 Incident Management Team (PCIMT3) and is under Unified Command with representatives of Buffalo Gap National Grassland, Wall Fire Department, Jackson County, and Pennington County.
At 6 p.m. the incident management team estimated the fire had burned between 5,000 and 6,000 acres of private and federal land based on information from personnel in an aircraft. More accurate size information is expected on Monday and may result in a change, they said.
This map produced by the Incident Management Team shows the approximate area of the Cottonwood Fire between Interstate 90 and Highway 14 south of Cottonwood Monday morning. They are currently working on a more accurate map made with the help of a GPS receiver.
Fire authorities reported that structures have burned, but did not provide any details on the number or if they were residences or other buildings.
All roads in the fire area were open at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday.
