Activity on the Double Creek and Eagle Cap Wilderness fires has slowed dramatically, but the blazes won’t be out “until the snow flies,” as one fire official said earlier this month.
Monday, Sept. 26, was predicted to be hot and dry, with conditions similar to mid-August as opposed to late September, according to the daily press release on the fires. However, the press release said, high fuel moisture and lack of wind will prevent any large fire growth. Instead, any active fire will be what firefighters call “skunking around” — low-intensity fire, which acts in ways similar to a prescribed burn, cleaning up unburned pockets of fuel resulting in a more fire-resistant landscape and a healthier forest, fire officials said.