8/26/2015 Kaniksu Complex Fire Update

Kaniksu Complex—Tower Fire

Idaho Panhandle and Colville National Forests and Washington DNR
Alaska Incident Mgt. Team — Tom Kurth, Incident Cmdr.

AUGUST 26, 2015, 10:00 am

For Immediate Release Pete Buist, 907-750-1639
towerfireinfo@gmail.com Jill Cobb, 208-443-6835 (msg)

Kaniksu Complex: The Tower Fire, along with six smaller fires, is all part of the Kaniksu Complex. The total acreage of all fires in the complex is 13,854 acres. Firefighters are patrolling the smaller fires but the majority of firefighting resources are assigned to the Tower Fire.

 Baldy Fire: located 16 miles north of Ione, Wash. (515 acres)
 Onata Fire: located about 8 eight miles east/southeast of Ione (323 acres)
 Hall Mountain Fire: located on Hall Mountain (14 acres)
 Grease Creek Fire: located south of Hall Mountain (70 acres)
 Slate Creek (1 acre) and South Fork Slate Creek (10 acre): located near the northwest boundary of Salmo-Priest Wilderness

Current Resources: The number of firefighters is 680. Equipment includes: 19 crews, 8 dozers, 20 engines, 7 water tenders, 1 Air Attack, 1 skidgen and 3 helicopters.
Tower Fire:
Size: 12,921 acres Containment: 10%
Strategy: Full Suppression Situation: Lighting, started Aug. 11
Location: 17 mi. north of Newport, Wash. and 6 mi. west of Priest Lake, Idaho

Update: The Tower Fire was very active on Tuesday, at least partially due to lighter smoke conditions. The containment percentage increased despite the fire showing significant movement. Some of the more active areas were on Pyramid Pass and around Brown’s Lake. Firefighters made significant use of retardant drops in these areas late in the day.
The Brown’s Lake campground and boat launch have been protected. The fire has reached, but not crossed, the Cee Cee Ah Road. South of Brown’s Lake, crews again successfully kept the fire from spreading further southwest. As planned, the fire backed downhill and reached the contingency line on the southeast corner.
The north end of the fire was held at the Squaw Valley Road. Work continued on line construction and reinforcement on the east side of the fire. In the Bear Paw area, crews concentrated on structure protection.
Some of the fire perimeter was mapped by helicopter Tuesday, but smoke prevented completion of mapping the entire perimeter. The remainder was updated using interpretation of the most recent infrared data