Out of State News- Wildfire closes in on Yellowstone resort

Daily Herald - Wildfire closes in on Yellowstone resort:

Wildfire closes in on Yellowstone resort- Firefighters continued to poke at the blaze's edges

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MATTHEW BROWN - The Associated Press

PAHASKA TEPEE, Wyo. -- Fire crews shored up defenses around a century-old lodge and houses and cabins outside Yellowstone National Park on Thursday as a 26-square-mile fire continued to push closer through mountainous terrain. The Columbine Fire, which began with an Aug. 9 lightning strike, was threatening a 1904 lodge built by Buffalo Bill Cody and part of the Pahaska Tepee Resort. Firefighters continued to poke at the blaze's edges, with three helicopters dumping water buckets and crews attempting to keep the fire from crossing the park's East Entrance Road. But steep terrain and the potential for wind-driven flare-ups have prevented an all-out attack. Residents and vacationers have already fled in anticipation that it will continue to grow. At the Buffalo Bill lodge, Byron Bennett, a firefighter from Meeteetse, said he was confident the lodge and surrounding cabins would be saved -- but said everything else could soon go. "Any embers get in here, we'll snuff them out," Bennett said. "But we might as well get this over with and burn everything else through." Bennett and others had wrapped a heat-resistant foil around the base of the historic lodge, and set up sprinklers to soak the resort's perimeter. Sprinklers also were set up at around approximately 15 other cabins and lodges along the North Fork of the Shoshone. From Pahaska, a wide column of smoke backlit by the setting sun filled the western sky. The closest hillsides, while not yet burning, were dotted with thousands of trees killed by a recent beetle infestation. Add in some dry weather and winds gusting up to 20 mph and "that's really prime for fire activity," said Tom Rhode, a U.S. Forest Service fire information officer. The east entrance to Yellowstone, through which 3,000 or more visitors pass daily during the summer, remained closed. Nevertheless, a steady stream of locals and the occasional tourist drove up to get a look at the massive fire. "I just wanted to see how far I could get," said Rob Hamilton, who came up from nearby Cody with his wife, Suzi, late Thursday. "All the dead trees up there, they're like a match waiting for something to strike it." By late Thursday, the fire had moved 2 to 3 miles down Canfield Creek, a drainage near Pahaska, and had spread on its northern and western and flanks, said Jill Cobb, fire information officer. Cobb said 167 people were fighting the fire in different ways, and more crews were expected. She acknowledged that people and equipment have been slow coming. "Though this is a high priority, there are a lot of high priorities across the West right now," she said. Four other fires were burning around Yellowstone but didn't threaten to close any roads or facilities. Two remote fires -- a 1,000-acre fire on the Promontory Peninsula in Yellowstone Lake and a 1,500-acre fire east of the lake -- were not being fought. A 2,800-acre fire that had been declared fully contained several weeks ago also flared up this week and firefighters were called into prevent the fire from spreading. Also, a 40-acre fire near the park's south entrance was fully contained.