EUREKA - Fire crews are working hard building containment on the East Fork Fire, receiving a little help from Mother Nature.
“We were talking about a hurricane on a fire line today which is really a first for a lot of people I think,” said Northern Rockies Incident Command Team 6 Public Information Officer Amy Hyfield.
Cooler temperatures, precipitation and high humidity are a welcome sight for fire crews working on the East Fork Fire burning more than 4,600 acres in steep and rugged terrain.
“So we have Hurricane Hillary that just hit the California coast and it is now moving up our direction, it’s a tropical system carrying lots of moisture," said Hyfield.
Hyfield said fire crews are taking advantage of the opportunistic weather.
“It’s going to give everybody an opportunity to really get close to that fire, to help put some containment lines in around it, and that the fire is not going to be very active, it will be able to stay in place during this system.”
Hyfield said fire activity which was moving toward critical infrastructure including power lines on Friday has cooled down thanks to the weather.
“Not out of the woods yet, that is still a priority and I know Lincoln Electric and Bonneville Power are still watching things, they are prepared and preparing if something does happen in the future.”
Fire crews are attacking the fire from the air, dropping 70,000 gallons of water from scooper planes on Sunday.
“We will look to the skies next week to see if the weather is conducive and of the needs are there and you might see some more scooping out of Dickey Lake in the future,” added Hyfield.
