The Lost Creek Fire in northwest Wyoming had burned 591 acres when a mapping aircraft overflew the fire at 2:36 Sunday morning. The blaze is on the south side of Highway 14/16/20, 23 miles west of Cody and 23 miles east of Yellowstone National Park’s east entrance. It was reported at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday.
Sunday morning the resources assigned or working on the fire included two Type 1 hand crews, multiple engines, two heavy air tankers, three single engine air tankers, two Type 1 helicopters, and one Type 3 helicopter. The Bill Cody Ranch and Rimrock Dude Ranch remain under an evacuation order.
A public meeting will be held at 5:00 p.m. Sunday at the Sheep Mountain Day Use Area of Buffalo Bill State Park. Due to ongoing health concerns, fire managers are asking the public to limit attendance to those directly impacted, and to limit the number of people per household that attend.
Restricting the number of attendees makes sense, but is certainly a change from the pre-COVID policy. It could be helpful if it were also live-streamed and available on the internet.
So far there has been no report of the highway being closed or restricting access to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Here is a link to Wyoming road information.
Google Maps showed slowing of traffic on the highway at 1:02 p.m. Sunday.
The map below shows the location of the fire relative to Yellowstone and Cody.
