Hole in the Wall Fire

Got a text from the firefighter last night - Fire went really big. Aerial ignition mistake. Scary we had to run.

After several more texts last night and one this morning, he's ok and they're working hard.

The official version isn't updated for today yet. Here's yesterday's update:

The lightning-ignited Hole in the Wall Fire continues to burn in very steep, rugged terrain. The fire has reached 3600 acres. Due to the fire behavior today the percentage of containment has decreased from 20 percent to 10 percent.

The fire was projected to cross Line Creek within the next twenty four hours; therefore the decision was made to conduct aerial ignition operations. Fire management felt that doing the burnout operations under controllable conditions would lessen fire intensity and prevent the fire from crossing Line Creek. After the burnout was completed a thunderstorm caused erratic strong downdraft winds pushing the fire west across Line Creek.

At this time the fire has reached the divide on the Line Creek Plateau between Line Creek and the head of Corral Creek.

Residents on the eastern and southern sides of the fire should expect heavy smoke.

As a precautionary measure, local Fire Departments have been patrolling the rural residential areas. The Carbon County Sheriff has issued an evacuation notice for the Robertson Draw, Ruby Creek and Gold Creek areas.

Trail closures include, Line Creek Plateau, Corral Creak Trail 9, Maurice Creek Trail 6, North Grove Trail, Face of the Mountain 7, and Robertson Draw 5 have been closed to public access. Forest Road 123, Line Creek Road, and South Grove Road are closed for public safety. All other roads remain open at this time.

A transfer of command took place at 8:00 pm this evening from the Type III Incident Command Team, Russ Wenke Incident Commander, to the Rocky Mountain Type II Team C, Joe Lowe Incident Commander.