More than a quarter of the 900 firefighters once working the Rock Fire near Tamarack Resort have been reassigned to other wildfires as containment continues rising daily.
Personnel working the Rock Fire peaked at 887 last weekend, but as of Thursday morning that number was down to 636 people, a decrease of about 28%, according to the Boise National Forest.
The exodus comes as the 4.3-square-mile fire zone received nearly an inch of rain on Monday night and Tuesday, assisting continued mop-up efforts by firefighters.
Containment reached 42% on Thursday morning, though containment lines have been constructed around nearly all the 33-acre fire perimeter. No structures have burned so far. However, firefighters did employ some structure protection measures beyond building containment lines.
Fire managers do not expect the fire to grow beyond its current perimeter, but unburned areas in the interior of the Rock Fire could continue burning for weeks.
“There are still approximately 160 acres of unburned vegetation scattered within the interior,” the Boise Forest said in a news release. “These pockets of fuel may continue to ignite, creep, and smolder for days or even weeks, producing smoke and occasional visible flames.”
This week’s rain came on the heels of dry, hot weather last weekend, which fire managers described as a “tell-tale” period for containment lines built over the last few weeks.
All containment lines will be rehabbed by crews to return the landscape to a more natural state. That work began this week on parts of the fire that are already mopped up, said Randy Lamb, an operations chief on the Rock Fire.
“That work will be going on for the next several days,” Lamb said, adding that some equipment and hose lines are also now being removed where feasible.
Evacuation orders eased
On Wednesday, Valley County downgraded an evacuation zone containing Tamarack from “Set” to “Ready,” which means to continue monitoring wildfire alerts. The “Set” stage means to be ready to evacuate “at a moment’s notice.”
West Mountain Evacuation Zones 6 and 7 remain in the “Ready” stage. West Mountain Zone 5, located south of the Rock Fire, is no longer subject to an evacuation designation after being at “Ready” since the fire started on Aug. 12.
Sheriff Kevin Copperi told Valley Lookout he made the decision to ease orders after consulting with fire managers. He emphasized that the decision was not made lightly and said his goal is to avoid “boomeranging orders” that change every few days.
“I want to make sure that citizens and visitors have trust in the orders that are placed,” Copperi said.
Recent rainfall, higher humidity, recent fire behavior, fuel loads between the fire and structures, the extended weather forecast, containment percentages, and advice from fire managers were among the factors Copperi based the decision on.
Tamarack continuing limited operations
Tamarack has remained open during the Rock Fire with limited operations. Lift-served Mountain biking, ziplining, and the resort’s marina on Lake Cascade have been closed since the fire started.
The Upper Bliss ski run on the resort’s southern boundary proved key in containing the Rock Fire, which burned up to containment lines firefighters built on the ski run.
Without donors like you, this story would not exist.
Make a donation of any size here
Spot fires that ignited within the resort were quickly extinguished by crews. The resort’s snowmaking equipment has been on since the fire began, misting vegetation to reduce the likelihood of ignition.
The Rock Fire started on Aug. 12 after an evening thunderstorm sparked multiple lightning-caused fires about 1.5 miles south of Tamarack. The fires merged shortly thereafter and became known as the Rock Fire.
The fire grew to 2.9 square miles within about 24 hours, but a full suppression strategy by the Boise Forest limited the fire’s growth to about another 1.4 square miles.
Payette wildfire starts
On the Payette National Forest, crews put out three new fire starts last week that were caused by lightning.
The Lady Bug Fire burned about a half-acre south of Jug Handle Mountain, while the Crystal Fire near Burgdorf Hot Springs burned about eight acres before being contained and extinguished.
A third fire, known as the Wildcat Fire, burned about a tenth of an acre on the Krassel Ranger District before it was declared out.
