Tie Canyon Fire 2 miles away from Victor

The Tie Canyon Fire was estimated at 890 acres Wednesday morning, and there is a level one evacuation for people living near Victor.

There are three levels of evacuation and No. 1 means be ready and gather what you need for when officials say it’s time to get out.

The Tie Canyon fire broke out Monday evening and got close to the Coal Mine Fork of Little Pine Creek.

“We issued the level one evacuation early so it would give people time to think about what they would want to take with them — should we move to a level two or level three evacuation,” said Jay Pence, the Teton Basin district ranger.

However, another big concern is how the Tie Canyon Fire started underneath power lines. Good news is the power line has metal power poles, so currently there is no worry of the line burning.

“Bonneville Power is working with us to ensure that if it occurs, that we will be able to mitigate a regional power outage. We do not expect black-enough smoke to hit the power line down today,” Pence said.

Right now, the Type 3 Incident Team that watched the Carrot, Big Elk, and Black Canyon fires are using their resources toward the Tie Canyon Fire.

“It is very beneficial to allow fires to do their natural course, and to reduce those fuels and that’s what we’re doing with those three fires. The nice thing about having those fires out there is in the future should a fire start somewhere else, a lot of times those old fire scars are a good containment line,” said Pence.

But don’t worry, I was told that when a Type 2 Incident Team arrives for the Tie Canyon Fire, the Type 3 Team will go back to point protecting the other three fires in the area.

In addition, the National Weather Service is predicting high winds for up to 40 mph — so crews are preparing for this fire to grow even bigger by Wednesday night.