Beach Fire continues in the Bridge Bay area
By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
July 24, 2010
The Beach Fire in Yellowstone National Park grew to 520 acres Friday as it continued to burn in lodgepole pine west of the Bridge Bay Campground near Yellowstone Lake.
The fire was 28 percent contained, said Gary Hoshide, information officer on the Beach Fire. On Friday, 195 personnel and three helicopters were working to fight the blaze.
“The timber stand [in which the fire is burning] is an over mature lodgepole pine stand about 300 years old,” Hoshide said. “It was an area that was not affected by the 1988 fires and there’s a lot of heavy fuels in the area.”
Fire crews are cutting down trees and creating fire line on the southwest, west and northwest perimeter of the fire. The east side of the fire is near the 10,000-acre Arnica Fire boundary, which burned last summer.
“They’re using that old burn as their holding line,” Hoshide said.
In the northwest corner of the park, the Slough Creek Fire was contained at 1 acre Thursday. In Grand Teton National Park, the Cathedral Group Fire was contained at 46 acres Monday.
On the Bridger-Teton National Forest, officials reported six small fires in the Hoback area after a lightning storm passed through the area Wednesday. The largest of those fires, the Bull Fire south of Hoback Junction, is 3 acres, with the other five fires less than a half acre. The Coal Creek Fire near Kemmerer is 41 acres.
