7/15/2015 Mt. Adams Complex Fire Update A.M.

The Horseshoe, Riley, 7 Lakes and Canyon Fires are located on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. They are being managed as the Mt Adams COMPLEX by the Washington Interagency Incident Management Team #4.
The Horseshoe Fire (now 340 acres) was detected in the Mt Adams Wilderness July 3, 2015. It is located on the west side of Mt Adams and is burning in subalpine fir forest and meadows along Riley Camp Trail #64 at approximately 5300 feet elevation. The southeastern portion of the fire has burned to the 2012 Cascade Creek fire.

Due to the expected long duration of the 2015 fire season, potential for the fire to eventually leave the Wilderness, impact tribal and private forest lands and require even more aggressive control efforts, firefighters have implemented direct suppression actions using minimum impact suppression techniques (MIST) to confine these fires. Heavy lift (Type 1) helicopters were used to drop water to check the spread of the fires while ground crews initiated direct suppression using wet line to confine them.

Mop up and rehabilitation are nearly completed on the Horseshoe Fire.
Crews have completed clearing small trees and brush to strengthen contingency lines along Forest Road 23 and evaluating additional contingency fire lines developed during the 2012 Cascade Creek Fire.


On July 9, 2015, lightning ignited three new fires in the area. The largest of the new fires is the Riley Fire at 63 acres, with two other small fires: 7 Lakes Fire (0.1 acres) and Canyon Fire (0.1 acres). 7 Lakes and Canyon have been confined and are being mopped up. Crews are mitigating hazards and initiating suppression on Riley.
Firefighters and district recreation personnel have developed and posted Pacific Crest Trail closure notices and reroute instructions for Pacific Crest Trail through-hikers to avoid the fire closure area.