The Douglas Complex fire tonight is 50% contained.
All the firefighters are back to work today after a week of thunderstorms slowed the fight on the now 45,000 thousand acre fire.
Today’s conditions allowed them to get back to continuing the containment line, but the fight is far from over.
With seasonal conditions returning…
“We’re now getting conditions that allow us to burnout areas that will help us secure our firelines,” says Bruce MacDonald, PIO for the Douglas Complex Fire.
Firefighters are back to fighting the fire with fire.
MacDonald says “it’s movement in the right direction.”
Hot shot crews are focusing on the southwest edge of the dad’s creek fire, where the terrain is extremely steep, and rugged.
“It’s pretty much impossible for the firefighters to get where the fire is now,” MacDonald says.
That’s one of the areas where fire crews will burn up to the containment line.
Crews are also focused on the most active part of the fire, the southwest corner of the Rabbit Mountain fire.
They are working to construct a containment line and burnouts here will happen over the next several days.
But more burnouts, means more smoke.
MacDonald says “some of those fuels inside the fire will increase how much smoke there is. We are also doing some burning out on the edge so that’s also going to increase some of the smoke we’ll see.”
Rain from the last week helped clear out the smoke so now we have mostly good to moderate air quality.
But that could change.
“If it gets high enough, the upper level winds could take it, it’s a possibility,” says Incident Meteorologist Steve Reedy.
As for a time when this fire is going to be put all the way out.
“Completely out It will be a while, ya,” says MacDonald.
Right now they have more than 2700 people fighting the fire, which has gone down from the more than 3,000.
Cost for fighting this fire is now up to more than $36 million dollars.
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