 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Fighting the Little Sand Fire, Part Four |
| Special to the Post | 5/29/12 |
|
| Back to the News Summaries |
|
The Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team has assumed supervision of the ongoing Little Sand fire in the Upper Piedra area.Two public meetings have been scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, May 30. The first meeting will be held at 2:30pm at Sportsman Campground. A second meeting will be held at 5:30pm at the Pagosa Springs H.S. auditorium.
Fire activity on Monday, May 28, consisted primarily of interior tree torching and spotting on the east flank. Fireline construction will continue from Sally’s Point the north along Forest Service Road 639. Additional acres burned were due to the fire backing towards the Piedra River carried by a layer of continuous timber litter. One objective is to keep the fire north of the river. Crews scouted and assessed the possibility of using firing operations to remove the unburned vegetation between the fire and the river to minimize the hazard of it crossing to the other side.
The fire is currently being fought by a crew of 147 firefighters, and as of Monday, about 2,700 acres were affected by fire.
 On Tuesday, firefighters were scheduled to return to the east flank of the fire to work on building fireline. At the south end of the incident crews will establish an anchor point and work to keep it from crossing the Piedra River. Winds pushed the fire back into itself on the west side and today crews will assess opportunities to for line construction.
Five engines and a water tender will continue to protect homes north and east of the fire and clean up areas where necessary.
Smokey conditions are likely in the Piedra Valley and surrounding areas including Creed.
A successful transition occurred at 7pm on Monday from the local Type 3 Incident Management Team to the Type 2 Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team B. Incident Commander Todd Pechota acknowledged the solid work done by the local team since May 13 when the incident was started by a lightening strike. Pechota said, “We’ll be looking hard to see where we can be successful in building fireline and where it’s going to hold. There’s a lot of work to be done.”
The top priority remains firefighter and public safety by minimizing unnecessary exposure while protecting private property, businesses and infrastructure.
Read Part Five... |
|
|
|
|
| Visit the Pagosa Daily Post |
| |
|
|
|
Order Prints Online | Weddings
| Professional Portraits | High
School Seniors | Families
Products | Contact
| Home | Pagosa
Springs Daily News
design and content © 2004-2009 Pagosa Photography | website hosting PagosaDailyPost.com
|
