3,000-plus acre Fish Creek Fire moves toward Togwotee, Brooks Lake Lodge

Fish Creek Fire is 0% contained. Brooks Lake Lodge is on alert but safe for now.

JACKSON — On Togwotee Pass, fire crews are battling a blaze that has more than tripled in size since Saturday and is headed toward a major highway.

At more than 3,200 acres, the Fish Creek Fire is 0% contained and advancing toward Highway 26/287.

A map produced by the Bridger-Teton National Forest Tuesday indicated that the fire was about 4 miles from the highway.

Nearby are the peak of Two Ocean Mountain, a popular prominence for backcountry skiers in the winter, and the Wind River picnic area. Two miles or so to the northeast of the highway, staff at Brooks Lake Lodge are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

“Right now, at this moment, we are not in harm’s way,” said Matthew Tousignant, general manager of the high-alpine lakeside resort, who spoke with the News&Guide Tuesday evening. “The forest service and wildland fire has reassured me of that so many times.

“But the truth of the matter is there’s so much fuel from the beetle kill up here that this is alarming,” Tousignant said. “If we get several days of severe winds, we could be in trouble.”

Staff at the lodge, one of the only major developments in the fire’s path, are all equipped with an emergency plan to evacuate if the situation deteriorates, Tousignant told the News&Guide, before hanging up to talk with wildland fire crews waiting to speak with him.

The Fish Creek Fire is now the largest fire burning on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. It is also the largest in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, having eclipsed the size of the Clearwater Fire west of Cody, which is roughly 2,000 acres and 67% contained.

It’s also not expected to be the last.

“We’re looking at a continued long fire season. Not just with this fire,” said Ranae Pape, the spokesperson for the Type 3 incident management team that took over from Bridger-Teton National Forest fire crews Tuesday. “What is it? August 20? We’ve got a long way to go. It’s really hot out, really windy. Lots of dry lightning.”

Type 3 incident management teams take over for local firefighting crews when fires exceed the firefighting resources an individual forest like the Bridger-Teton has at its disposal. Pape said the team is currently working to assess “a lot of the perimeter and areas and making sure we can work on a containment strategy for this fire.”

Additional firefighting resources have been ordered, including a helicopter, helitack crew, six fire engines and medical personnel, according to a Tuesday morning press release.

The team’s goal is to “work on a containment strategy and take care of lodges, different outfitter camps, make sure that highway stays open for recreationalists and homeowners in the area,” Pape said.

The weather, however, has not been cooperating. Winds associated with afternoon thunderstorms have helped the fire spread northeast. More afternoon thunderstorms are expected this week.

Pape couldn’t give an estimate of how long it would take the fire to reach Highway 26 over Togwotee Pass — or Brooks Lake beyond — but said fire crews are working to establish containment lines and keep that from happening. So far, the fire is 0% contained, and gaining control has proven difficult.

“Containment” is a measure of a fire’s perimeter and its potential for growth. It indicates how much of a fire has been surrounded by a control line, natural or manmade, that will prevent it from spreading. As it stands, crews are looking toward open drainages, previous burn scars and natural features as barriers.

Smoke from the fire can be seen across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and Pape asked that people driving Togwotee Pass use extreme caution, particularly in smoky conditions.

“So the biggest concern and priority for us is the safety of the public and our firefighters,” Pape said. “When that smoke comes in, we really need folks to slow down, turn their headlights on.”

Pape also asked people to avoid trying to watch the fire. Gawking is unhelpful, she said.

“There are folks who want to go up and look at the fire. We understand that folks want to do that, but it creates extra traffic in there, extra vehicles,” Pape said.

Managing those people diverts resources from the fire.

The fire is burning on top of the Continental Divide Trail and hikers are currently being re-routed. Fire crews have closed a large swath of land south of Two Ocean Mountain and west of the Continental Divide to protect recreationists and fire crews working in the area.

Visit the Fish Creek Fire InciWeb at TinyURL.com/fcfire for more information.

The Bridger-Teton’s Facebook page is also a reliable resource for fire updates.

This story was published on August 21, 2024.