Red flag wind conditions have grown the Haystack Fire, east of I-15 between Butte and Basin, to between 5,000 and 6,000 acres.
A pre-evacuation notice issued by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office remains in place for the area around the mouth of the Little Boulder River (south of the Boulder River, west of Highway 69, and north of Boulder Hot Springs) and the Depot Hill/Boomerang Gulch area north and west of I-15.
Residents in those areas should be prepared to evacuate at any time. Anyone in those areas who feels unsafe, or needs extra time to evacuate, should do so now. Sheltering support is available through the Red Cross by calling 1-800-272-6668.
A public meeting is scheduled for today, Sunday Sept. 19, at 2 p.m. at the white barn at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Boulder. Fire, Forest Service leadership and other partners will be present in order to brief the current fire situation, plans, and answer questions.
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The fire is estimated to have grown from 3,000 to 4,000 in size over the past three days.
Daily infrared mapping flights have taken place to track the size of the fire when possible, but no flight was conducted Saturday evening due to weather. The red flag alert indicated southwest to west winds gusting between 30 to 40 mph on Friday increasing to 50 to 60 mph on Saturday, causing difficult fire fighting conditions.
Fire crews will continue to work on structure protection in the pre-evacuation areas. Please do not travel into those areas to observe operations. Critical incident information will be posted on the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Facebook pages, broadcast on the county's low-power FM radio stations, and sent to the residents who may be directly impacted using the county's reverse notification system, the signup for which can be found here: https://public.coderedweb.com/CNE/en-US/BFD59278BCD2.
Additional information is available on the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JeffersonCountyMontanaSheriffsOffice/
And on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Facebook page:
Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest fire crews are fighting the fire which was started by lightning on July 31.
Fire crews were engaged on prep and containment work on Forest Service Road 5130 over the weekend. An engine is staged in Elk Park and a crew on the heel of the fire out of caution for community residences should the fire change direction of spread.
As this fire moved generally north and east over Friday and Saturday, fire crews worked with Jefferson County Law Enforcement, Department of Emergency Services, the Bureau of Land Management, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and local volunteer fire departments in both fighting the fire and in preparing the community.