8/17/2015 National Creek Complex Update

Crater Lake National Park has closed the north entrance road between State Highway 138 at the park’s north boundary and Crater Lake west rim drive at north junction.  This precautionary closure will facilitate fire operations and provide for the safety of firefighters and park visitors.  A segment of the Pacific Crest Trial is also closed from the park north boundary to the junction with Lightning Springs Trail.

Yesterday’s Activities:  The size of the National Fire remains unchanged as crews continued to search for and extinguish hot spots near containment lines.  Firefighters are preparing existing Forest Service roads to be used for containment lines west of the National Fire should they be needed for the Crescent Fire.  Other crews constructed hand fire lines perpendicular to and south of Highway 230 to create opportunities for checking the spread of the fire.

The Crescent Fire increased by over 500 acres yesterday.  Crews also responded to and suppressed another spot fire north of Highway 230.

Today’s Activities:  Fire crews will continue to improve State Highway 230 for use as a containment line west of the fire.  Burn out operations may begin at the north eastern part of the fire.  Crews will also continue to improve or remove dead trees along the north park entrance road further south in anticipation of the fire pushing to the east.  A structure protection group, supported by initial attack resources, is working in the Diamond Lake area to protect structures.

Weather:  Warmer and drier temperatures are expected today and are predicted to increase during the next few days.  The relative humidity is expected to be near 15 - 19% this afternoon with no substantial winds.

The weather on Tuesday and Wednesday is expected to create very active fire behavior conditions.  An inversion layer has been mitigating the fire intensity for the past few days on the northern part of the fire by trapping smoke near the ground level and shading vegetation.  These conditions are expected to change and with better air ventilation, an increase in fire behavior will occur.

 Closures & Evacuations: Crater Lake National Park has closed the north park entrance and a larger section of the Pacific Crest Trail, north of the lake.  The remainder of the park is open.  Area closure orders have been issued for the Rogue River-Siskiyou and Umpqua National Forests near Diamond Lake.  Maps and descriptions of the trail and area closures are online at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4463/.

State Highway 230 is closed (ODOT Tripcheck). There are trail closures in the National Park and on the Rogue River-Siskiyou and Umpqua National Forest.

Diamond Lake Area is under a Stage 1 Evacuation Notice; the “ready” stage in “ready, set, go”.