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Today is a transition day. Southern Gold Incident Management team will be shadowing the outgoing Pacific Northwest Team 3 throughout the operational shift and will take command of the fire
Noel Livingston, incident Commander for Pacific Northwest Team 3, extends sincere thanks on behalf of the team to the gracious residents and representatives of the local communities.
Yesterday’s Activities: Firefighters patrolled and mopped-up approximately 60 miles of containment line. Crews used hand tools and chainsaws to cut fireline around the one acre slop-over where fire spread beyond containment lines just east of Pickens Nose.
Fire suppression repair work continued on bulldozer and hand lines around the secure areas of the fire. Crews were able to repair bulldozer line from Raven Ridge to Fox Trot Rd. In the Betty’s Creek area, firefighters patrolled around homes, and firelines. They began pulling hose from secure areas ahead of the anticipated rain event.
Today’s Operations: Safety remains the primary objective. With the rain, there isn’t much, if any, fire perimeter movement anticipated today and fire in the leaves, or lighter fuels, will likely extinguish. Larger fuels, like down logs, standing dead trees and stumps or root systems, continue to hold heat and, as the weather dries, can re-ignite leaves.
Resources continue to patrol and hold firelines. Structure groups will maintain lines around homes and structures. Where hoselays are no longer needed, firefighters will remove them to be returned to the fire cache for re-distribution.
Trees weakened by insects and fire pose a safety hazard to firefighters. That hazard is increased by rains, as loosened soils can make it easier for the shallow rooted trees, like hemlock, to fall.
Weather: A low pressure storm system over the Mississippi valley will keep a southeast flow of moist air over the fire into Wednesday. This will bring rain and increased relative humidity over the fire, with the best chance of rain Tuesday night into Wednesday. Isolated thunderstorms are possible on Tuesday. Cooler and drier weather will not return until the end of the week. Winds will be out of the southeast 5 to 15 mph with gusts to 20 mph. The highest wind speeds will be over south and east facing slopes.
Closures & Evacuations: Several of the road closures and evacuation levels have been lifted. The following road closures remain in place:
· Coleman River Road
· Patterson Gap Road
· Abe Gap Road
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