Optimism In Ending Yellowstone Blaze

Firefighters were cautiously optimistic Monday that they will contain a 2,800-acre wildfire in Yellowstone National Park by week's end.

The park's east entrance was closed for a ninth day and the blaze was still just a half-mile from employee housing and other buildings.

However, the fire did not grow over the weekend. Containment Monday increased from 25 to 30 percent as firefighters cleared brush around the flanks of the burn area.

"Although we had some torching, some trees burning, flaring up inside the fire line, we don't believe we had any advancement of the fire (Monday)," spokesman Brian Morris said.

"Things are still going well," he said. "Relative humidities were low, fuel moisture was low. We did not have any winds."

Firefighters were shooting for Friday for clearing brush from all sides of the Arthur Fire.

"Of course that's all subject to change if the weather turns against us," fire information officer Kim Smith said. "Just because we get a line around it doesn't mean we all go home. We have to wait for it to be all safe and controlled."

The forecast was for more hot and dry weather.

Firefighters have set up sprinkler systems and cleared away brush around the east entrance buildings in case the fire makes a turn for the worse. The sprinklers were kept running so the wooden buildings can soak up moisture, Smith said.

Joining the tanker planes, 13 helicopters and 22 engines on the fire were 769 ground firefighters. Four, 20-person hotshot crews and nine other firefighters camped near the fire Sunday night to save the time of traveling between the fire and base camp near Fishing Bridge on the north end of Yellowstone Lake.

To date, the effort has cost $3.1 million.

"It's a big air show so a lot of that cost is in the air operation," Smith said.

Elsewhere, firefighters expected on Monday to completely contain two wildfires in the Black Hills on the Wyoming-South Dakota border. The fires have charred about 34 square miles since Monday.

Among other wildfires in Wyoming, a 500-acre fire 22 miles south of Dubois did not grow last weekend even though firefighters left because the area is remote wilderness.

An 800-acre fire 35 miles west of Wheatland was fully contained late Saturday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

A 50-acre fire near Cody on the Shoshone National Forest was contained Saturday.

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