Crescent Mountain Fire Final Update
Release Date: Oct 4, 2018
Crescent Mountain Fire Final Update
October 4, 2018
Crescent Mountain Fire:
- 52,609 acres; 86 percent contained
- Point of Origin: Approximately 21 miles west of Twisp
- Start Date: July 29, 2018
- Cause: Lightning
McLeod Fire:
- 24,411 acres; 91 percent contained
- Point of Origin: Approximately eight miles north of Mazama
- Start Date: August 11, 2018
- Cause: Lightning
Holman Fire:
- 302 acres, no containment
- Point of Origin: Holman Peak
- Start Date: August 17, 2018
- Cause: Unknown
Crescent Mountain and McLeod Fire
Methow Ranger District Incident Commander Dan Robbins reports that: “Fire personnel have repaired the vast majority of the dozer and hand lines on both the McLeod and Crescent Mountain Fires. We are able to focus more and more on grading the forest roads in order to repair the washboards and damage caused by firefighting operations.” The closure area and trail closures for the McLeod and Crescent Fire have been reduced due to the seasonal weather changes and continued progress of repair operations.
Heavy equipment will continue to do the important road repair work in the remaining closure area. The public is asked to adhere to the closure order restrictions for their own safety and the safety of fire personnel.
Safety: Dangers exist during and long after a wildfire occurs and forest visitors should limit their use of recently burned areas by just traveling through those areas to reach an unburned destination.
Some of the hazards to watch out for when traveling through old wildfire areas include falling snags/dead trees which might injure people or block roads or trails, stump holes and root channels can still be burning and are often hidden from sight until stepped upon, rolling rocks and mudslides or debris flows off hillsides can occur any time but especially after rain and freeze-thaw events, and recently opened areas may still have areas with smoke and fire.
Holman Fire & Pacific Crest Trail: A recently filed Methow Valley Ranger District Wilderness Ranger trip report details the current status of PCT-N #2000 (from Windy Pass TH to ~3/4 mile south of Holman Pass). The Ranger hiked out and removed 29 logs, numerous fallen branches, and larger rocks from the trail. The Ranger stated: “I was not able to hike through the entire burn, as there were still small sections of smoldering material and smoke.” As of 8/31/18, there is a detour for hikers to reach the Canadian border from Slate Pass using Trail No. 575 to Trail No.478, then Trail No. 473 to Woody Pass.
Burned Area Emergency Response: The Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest has assembled a Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) assessment team to analyze post-fire condition of burned watersheds and to plan emergency stabilization treatments for Central Washington wildfires. The team will soon be conducting field surveys and analyzing satellite imagery to develop burned area assessments. Reports and maps of the burned area assessments will be available at centralwashingtonfirerecovery.info
Crescent Mtn Fire Area Closure Map
Fire Information:
Inciweb: Crescent Mountain: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6093/
McLeod: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6130/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrescentMTNFire/