Gunbarrel troubleshooters put feet to fire

A big part of the effort at the Gunbarrel fire has been protecting “values” (values are firefighter speak for structures — cabins, lodges, campgrounds, etc.) on the North Fork corridor, better known on maps as U.S. 14-16-20.

Firefighters are easy to spot. They are the ones sporting yellow shirts and green pants treated with Nomax, a fire retardant. Not the people. I mean their threads.

I’ve met some swell people on this fire and this cool crew in the pic are certainly no exception. They were checking some cabins a few miles east of Pahaska Tepee last week.

Be safe guys...

Clockwise are Neal Obray, Hayley Crosby, Jessica Brewen, Scott Nilson, Kevin Wiebe, Tom Lentz and Erin Elliott.

Now, some more on the fire...

The fire is more or less than 40 miles west of Cody, burning on the north side of the highway. If you are headed to Yellowstone National Park, look to your right. Your eyes will note burned trees that very closely resemble big charred toothpicks. On Saturday there was a new smoke plume on a ridge across from Eagle Creek campground. Now, roiling smoke can be spotted in the vicinity of Yellowstone Valley Inn, near the national forest boundary.

The powers that be decided in late July when lightning ignited a tree to allow the fire to consume the pine beetle infested hills. As much as 80 percent of trees are reportedly dead due to the insidious little insects.

If you can click on the below map, you can get a closer look at the fire's growth over the last few weeks.
Most of the locals I have chatted with on the North Fork believe the firefighters are doing a bang-up job. Of course, some lodge owners are sweating the loss of business and one fellow said they should have stamped out the fire the moment it ignited and thus saved a butt-load of money. The fire has cost $5.4 million as of Wednesday morning.

My opinion? Assuming of course someone is interested...

I’ll quote erstwhile Yellowstone Park Superintendent Ken Barbee, the oft criticized man of the Fires of 1988 lore: “Let it burn!”

Of course I don’t want to see the good people running lodges lose their livelihood or some friends that have a cabin there return to find a pile of broiled rubble.

However, if the dead trees are removed, re-growth will occur in forests that are around 300 years old. While the forest is in re-growth mode, new grazing will be available for elk and deer scampering across the hills.

Wednesday’s update: 43,066 acres. There are approximately 146 personnel on the fire. A complete update for Wednesday can be found here.

There will also be another public meeting on the Gunbarrel fire on Friday, Aug. 22, at 11 a.m., at the Gunbarrel fire camp.

The Internet is a good place to glean fire data. If you hit the right sites, the information should be accurate although it may be dated. For the uninitiated, try http://inciweb.org.