EBS STAFF
Firefighters responded to the Fox Creek Fire on the afternoon of Aug. 2. The Fox Creek Fire is burning in the South Cottonwood drainage near Hyalite Canyon and measured at 3.5 acres as of Aug. 3. The fire is determined to be caused by lightning.
On Friday, shortly after the fire was identified, four smokejumpers and one type 3 helicopter were deployed to the Hyalite area. By Saturday, a type 3 helicopter, a type 2 helicopter, and a type 1 helicopter had been using Hyalite Reservoir extensively to fill buckets and drop water on the fire. Nineteen smokejumpers were also on site by Sunday, according to a Facebook post by the Custer Gallatin National Forest. Although there are no closures at this time, fire managers are requesting that the public give helicopters room to work.
Often busy during fair-weather weekends, Hyalite visitors were quick to share footage of crews at work, such as Reddit user “mchmnd” who shared a clip of a type 1 helicopter pulling water from the reservoir on Aug. 3, or Carla Knoll who shared a clip of two smokejumpers in action on Facebook’s Bozeman Hiking Forum.
The Fox Creek Fire is currently 0% contained and burning timber.
“With the steep terrain and proximity of the South Cottonwood drainage to the Hyalite area, fire managers implemented a timely suppression response in the initial attack of the fire, using smokejumpers on Aug. 2 through Aug. 4 along with helicopters assisting the firefighters by dipping out of hyalite reservoir as a water source and dropping buckets of water to cool down hot spots,” stated the national forest’s Facebook post. “Forest Service firefighters and managers made decisions based on risk assessments to safely deploy firefighting resources to suppress the fire.”
