Photos by Shari Damron
HILL COUNTY (NMB) On Tuesday afternoon New Media Broadcasters went on a media tour of the Eagle Creek Fire and spoke with the Incident Commander for the Bureau of Land Management, Robert Smith, for an update on the Eagle Creek fire suppression efforts.
Smith says the fire was mapped at 50 percent containment with 7,225 acres of damage with multiple Federal, State, and local and rural agencies are cooperating in the effort to control the fire.
BIA Forestry, BLM, DNRC, Forest Service, and CMR were on site.. Amanda Frickel added six rural departments are cooperating along with Helitek. Smith says there is no U. S. Forest Service land nearby.
Smith says there have been no current evacuations or warnings because of the fire. Frickel added that early on campsights were shut down and Sandy Creek was evacuated September 7th but is unsure if anyone has returned.
There is still a security checkpoint at the cattle guard restricting access.
Smith says hand crews working the edges on the timber with the majority of the efforts focusing on the west/northwest corner near the Eagle Creek Drainage. Because of the heavy timber he says it has been slow with lots of hand crew work.
Smith went on to say, pointing at a north-facing slope, opposite from the East Fork Reservoir where fire crews were parked below, the East Fork Reservoir all the way to the east side the main dig line and gut trees that helicopters were pulling water from the East Fork Reservoir and dropping it on the blaze in that direction.
Efforts to establish a perimeter are in still progress. Smith said hot spots are still popping up but there are fewer each day and not every tree or shrub on the interior of the fire damage has been destroyed. Smith says their air attack has airplane support but fire crews have not needed it in two days.
At this time there are there were no plans to bring any more fire personnel to supplement the 278 fire crews members, including volunteers already on hand.
Crews are stopping around ten at night, but based on rest guidelines to avoid doubling the manpower on site.
Smith says containment won’t be 100% containment until at least until the weekend, depending on the whether the temperature drops or if there is moisture in the forecast but estimates it would take at least a week of rain.
Frickel says residents on private and land and on the reservation are being asked to monitor the air quality index for health precautions but says people aren’t being asked to mask up.
Smith suggests utilizing the website https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ to find up to date information on the agencies involved with coordinating the Wildfire suppression efforts and data on containment.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation but Frickel says it is human-caused.
