Heating Up: New fires in Yellowstone, burning restrictions across region

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

Two new fires broke out in Yellowstone National Park and officials outside the park are banning fires and restricting smoking as the region dries out in hot, windy conditions.

One new fire in the park, the Amethyst fire, was so hot that smokejumpers had to be called off.

"It's just so hot and so dry," Yellowstone spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said Wednesday. "It's unsafe to have smokejumpers in there."

That blaze, which ignited Tuesday in the Specimen Ridge area, could only be described as "more than 20 acres," Matthews said, adding that it was emitting spot fires in the strong winds. Part of the Specimen Ridge Trail has been closed.

Cody, Wyo., resident Gerald Joest said he could see a smoke column from his home, about 50 miles away.

Two other fires, also in the northeast part of the park, are calmer. Smokejumpers quickly contained the quarter-acre Bison fire which ignited Wednesday, Matthews said, and the 2-acre Fan fire is being allowed to burn inside the perimeter of an area burned in 1988.

Meanwhile, campfires and cigarette smoking will be banned on most of the Gallatin National Forest, except in developed campsites, starting at noon on Friday.

"If current conditions persist, there is the potential to have a large, active fire season similar to what we had in 2000 and 2001," Gallatin Supervisor Becki Heath Wednesday said in announcing the restrictions.

Campfires in rock fire-rings outside developed sites are included in the ban, but wood-burning stoves will be allowed.

Smokers also need to be careful. That activity will be legal on the Gallatin Forest only within an enclosed building or vehicle, at a developed recreation site or in an area at least 3 feet in diameter that is free of all flammable material.

The restrictions do not apply in the moister high country of the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness Area and the Cooke City area.

"They're holding their own pretty good up there," said Julie Shea, fire restrictions coordinator for Southcentral Montana.

However, similar restrictions are likely to come in a few days on other national forests and on state land, Shea said.

On Wednesday, Gallatin County officials banned all burning on private land in the county and the Bozeman Fire Marshal suspended all open burning within city limits -- effective immediately

Fuels are dry all over, Shea said.

Green vegetation contains only two-thirds of normal moisture, while 3-inch to 8-inch logs contain about 10 percent moisture -- the equivalent of a 2-by-4 at a lumber yard -- in some areas.

Hot, windy weather is sucking away water.

"Because of the wind and the temperatures, we're already back to drought levels," Shea said.

No new fire starts had been reported on the Gallatin, but there has been one on the Helena National Forest and and dry lightning was in the forecast Wednesday night.

"We plan on (the fire season) getting more active as the weeks progress," Shea said. "There's not a lot of moisture in the weather forecast."

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