Elbow Ck. Fire, July 23

ODF release – July 22, 2:13 p.m.- Wallowa, ORE. – The Elbow Creek Fire, now at 19,993 acres, is moving up the ranks in priority across the region and orders for crews and other resources are being filled. Twelve new crews arrived Wednesday evening and the fire now has resources from Washington, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Michigan, California, Oregon, and Idaho. As additional personnel arrive more objectives are being met, giving firefighters the ability to plan ahead and make changes to suppression techniques. The most active area of the fire remains in the Elbow Creek Drainage near the confluence of the Grande Ronde River. This particular area is central to the intersection of several canyons that produce erratic winds from all directions. Steep slopes along Indian Ridge and Grossman Creek are challenging as firefighters continue to establish hand and dozer lines. Water dispensing helicopters and a retardant-dropping airtanker are being used to aid firefighters in slowing the fire in the Elbow Creek and Sickfoot Creek drainages. A mobile retardant base is now in place at the Bar B Ranch on the southeast side of the fire for faster aircraft turnaround. Looking ahead, the fire team is planning on opening up existing road systems and ridgetops with bulldozers and hand crews. This contingency planning will create backup containment lines should they be needed in the future. With little to no activity in the northeast and eastern side of the fire, crews continue to mop up and widen containment lines. Firefighters were successful in Wednesday’s burnout operation within Sickfoot Creek and today’s goal is to develop fire line around the area perimeter. Firefighters are having success on the south end of the fire, in the Deep Creek drainage, securing lines and transitioning to mop-up.  Weather conditions call for lower humidity with potential for unpredictable and erratic westerly winds. These conditions can cause swirling winds within the deep canyons leading to additional fire activity. Incident management team members and others once again shared information about the fire Thursday evening through Facebook Live and Zoom. Level 2 and 3 evacuation notifications by the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office remain unchanged. Additional information regarding evacuations is available on the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Wallowa-County-Sheriffs-Office-147212815486187).