With the stubborn 25,000-acre Fish Creek Fire on mop-up duty in the Bridger-Teton National Forest of northwest Wyoming, the crisis for the historic Brooks Lake Lodge and the Pinnacle and Breccia subdivisions seemed to have passed.
But what a difference Wyoming wind can make to what had been a small and smoldering fire, started by lightning strikes two weeks ago.
As wind picked up speed over the weekend, the Pack Trail Fire that began Sept. 15 took off from nowhere overnight, and by Monday morning, it was a raging inferno that had consumed a reported 19,608 acres.
The new fire was likely started by lightning strikes in a deeply forested area, according to Fish Creek and Pack Trail Fire Public Information Officer Jim Bartlett.
“This was a holdover from a lightning strike down in there that was in very thick, very inaccessible area, with lots of dead timber,” Bartlett told Cowboy State Daily on Monday afternoon. “The fire got through the confinement features that we had established, and we threw heavy air tankers at it, but it blew past us like we weren’t even there.”
After that the fire made a “solid 10-mile run” before hanging up on the Lava Mountain burn scar from 2015-2016.
“When the fire is moving that fast, there’s not really any opportunity to actually install any (fire containment) features,” Bartlett said. “So, you look for natural containment or confinement features. And the Lava burn scar was right there so, as expected, when it hit that the fire kind of laid down. It’s fortunate that was there.”
Brooks Lake Lodge Gets New Evacuation Order
The new fire has not only put Brooks Lake Lodge, Pinnacle and Breccia under new evacuation orders, but also Lava Mountain Lodge, the Triangle C Ranch, the old KOA, the Timberline Ranch and the Rawhide Ranches.
“Right now, as we speak, they’re putting a bunch of aircraft on the fire,” Bartlett said. “And fire behavior has kind of stood down today because we don’t have as much wind. But yesterday it was crazy. It threw off a big, giant column (of smoke and fire). The valley is really smoked out.”
The huge fuel reduction work done previously at Brooks Lake Lodge and the surrounding area, as well as the fire protection plan that was developed during the Fish Creek Fire, means that the lodge is actually in a strong position, despite the resurgence of fire in the area.
“When this thing took off day before yesterday, we just picked up the structure protection plan and sort of brushed it off,” Bartlett said.
That included bringing in new hoses to reconnect the sprinkler system. Drop tanks filled with water remained on site.
“If it becomes necessary to reinstall all of that stuff, it’s just a question of sending a couple engine crews up there,” Bartlett said. “And I’ve been up there around the lodge buildings and such, and it looks pretty solid. I’d say reconnecting the hoses is about a half-day job, depending on how many people are working on it.”
There are also a few firefighters monitoring smoldering stumps in the area of the lodge to ensure nothing takes off, Bartlett added.
“I don’t really see it making a run at Brooks Lake Lodge unless there’s some very dramatic turn of events in the next 48 hours. But it’s easy to pivot if need be,” he said. “So, our focus is going to be more on the actual 26 corridor.”
A huge plume of smoke rises up from the Pack Trail Fire near Dubois. (Courtesy John Angst) 
The fast-growing Pack Trail Fire just southeast of the Fish Creek Fire has grown rapidly, with firefighting crews now treating the two fires as a single Fish Creek/Pack Trail complex. Both are burning in the Shoshone National Forest and threatening Highway 26 and nearby residential areas. (U.S. Forest Service-Bridger-Teton National Forest) 
The fast-growing Pack Trail Fire just southeast of the Fish Creek Fire has grown rapidly, with firefighting crews now treating the two fires as a single Fish Creek/Pack Trail complex. Both are burning in the Shoshone National Forest and threatening Highway 26 and nearby residential areas. (U.S. Forest Service-Bridger-Teton National Forest) 
The fast-growing Pack Trail Fire just southeast of the Fish Creek Fire has grown rapidly, with firefighting crews now treating the two fires as a single Fish Creek/Pack Trail complex. Both are burning in the Shoshone National Forest and threatening Highway 26 and nearby residential areas. (U.S. Forest Service-Bridger-Teton National Forest) 
(Wyoming State Forestry Division)
Nevada Team On Deck
The complex incident management team that had been managing the Brooks Lake Lodge fire protection plan as well as the Fish Creek Fire has rotated out and a new team from Nevada, described as a Type 3 Incident Management Team, has rotated in.
“One benefit, the good thing about having the Nevada team here is this kind of rapid blow up is the bread and butter of firefighting down in that part of the world,” Bartlett said. “They have just these big sage fuel, sage and grass fuel models.”
Because of that experience, the team was able to immediately regroup from Fish Creek mop-up efforts to containment of the new fire.
“We knew that burn scar was there, and when the fire naturally came up on that it ran into a paucity of fuel,” Bartlett said. “Right now, the wind’s pretty moderate and it’s generally forecast today to be out of the southwest.”
Nonetheless, the teams are closing monitoring for canyon flows and other terrain to ensure the fire isn’t going to bust loose again.
“For us, we didn’t suffer so much from wind direction change, we suffered from the severity of it,” he said. “It was a minimum of 30 mph and I think there were several gusts up there that were much higher than that. There were a couple that I felt on the periphery that I’m pretty sure was almost 60 mph wind.
“We didn’t have a weather station put there where we were standing, so I’m not certain, but it definitely turned into red flag conditions.”
Fortunately, once the sun went down, the wind quieted down, helping to slow the fire, even as the team put structure protection groups in and around structures along Highway 26.
“At this time, we’ve got aircraft up and we put in a substantial order for aviation,” Bartlett said. “It’s still fairly narrow, like 5 miles across, and that’s ideal for putting air on it once the weather moderated enough to where we could get those aircraft up.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
