Yellowstone Wildfire Rages Near Entrance

Homeowners in once-fire-threatened Jackson began the task of cleaning up Friday, but flames threatened another part of the West on Tuesday, this time Yellowstone National Park.

Fire managers arrived in Yellowstone to direct a fight against a difficult fire that has closed one of the park’s five entrances and threatened a historic lodge on the park’s border as well as several park structures.

More than 200 more firefighters were on the line in Yellowstone, park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said.

“It was one of the areas in 1988 that did not receive burn, so you have a lot of heavy fuel,” Matthews said. Fires burned nearly a million acres in Yellowstone in 1988.

The 900-acre wildfire was located in treacherous terrain, preventing ground crews from reaching it, Matthews said.

The fire forced the park to close its east entrance, one of five ways into the vast preserve, and threatened employee housing and other buildings near the fire, which was about a mile west of the entrance. More than 333,000 people passed through the entrance last year.

The fire also was threatening the popular Pahaska Tepee resort, which features a hunting lodge built in 1904 by Buffalo Bill Cody.

Pahaska Tepee, which is a mile outside the Yellowstone entrance, told its roughly 100 guests that evacuation was a possibility. By late Tuesday, all guests had left, leaving only about 60 resort employees.

Other fires were burning in Washington, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and South Dakota.

Southwest of Jackson, homeowners were busy cleaning fire-retardant foam from their ritzy mountain retreat, as some of the 1,400 firefighters who saved the houses from a stubborn wildfire prepared to pack up.

The fire in the southwest corner of the Jackson Hole valley was not completely contained, but it no longer posed the danger that it did last week, when it threatened more than 100 homes, including a subdivision where home values average $5 million. The fire brought an aerial blitz of water and fire retardant from tankers and helicopters that stopped the fire’s advance.

The 4,470-acre fire was 75% contained Tuesday, and fire officials expected complete containment Thursday. Calmer wind and cooler temperatures have helped firefighters gain the upper hand.

The fire had come within several feet of some homes last week, but none was destroyed. The town of Jackson was never threatened.

Evacuated residents--some who were out of their homes for six days--began returning Monday evening.

“I expected to come up and see nothing but a pile of chimneys,” said John Thornton, who was forced from his home at Crescent H Ranch, a former dude ranch with about a dozen cabins now used privately.

“We’re doing pressure washing on the structures and having fun,” he said, surveying a landscape largely unchanged but for some fire equipment and black spots near a close-by cabin. “I’m glad there’s something left to clean.”

Farther down the road, caretaker Jeremy Kusmin was relaxed and all smiles. Flaky residue from a protectant used by firefighters remained on the home he cares for, and so did the watering system he helped rig on the upscale dwelling that came to be known as “the wet house.”

“There’s a Christmas bonus right there, I tell you,” he said, laughing at one of his efforts to save the home.

Jackson Hole, a 40-mile-long valley, is the gateway to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. The fire started July 22 when an abandoned campfire got out of control. Firefighting efforts have cost about $8 million so far, officials said.

Elsewhere in the state, another fast-moving grass fire engulfed three trailer homes and forced 100 to 150 residents from a subdivision northeast of Casper late Monday. That fire was put out early Tuesday and residents were allowed to return home. It was not immediately known if the trailer homes were occupied, said Stew Anderson, Natrona County emergency manager.

In north-central Washington, about 700 firefighters worked to complete lines around the fire that has burned about 4,000 acres near Chelan.

No one has been injured, but the fire burned one home and two vacation trailers over the weekend when residents of 33 homes were told to evacuate. On Monday, residents of 23 homes were advised to leave, but only nine left.