Skillet Fire 82% Contained as Local Team Takes Command
The handover marks a planned drawdown to local mop-up work that will use UAS heat detection and could keep smoldering into September.
Overview
- The Skillet Fire, started by lightning July 29 in the Tally Ranger District near Olney, has burned 3,364 acres and is 82% contained.
- Command moved from Great Basin Complex Incident Management Team 7 to a local Type 3 team on Tuesday evening, August 18, signaling a shift from large-scale suppression to local operations.
- Personnel on the incident have been reduced from 356 under Team 7 to about 218 today, and managers expect staffing to settle near 200 as equipment and crews are reassigned.
- Crews built and held lines using heavy equipment, aircraft, modeling and the East Fork 2023 burn scar as a tactical holding feature, and UAS will be used to find hot spots during mop-up.
- Evacuation warnings for Good Creek and Alder Creek were lifted on August 16, but Flathead and Kootenai National Forest closures and a security checkpoint remain in place while crews finish suppression and repairs.