Update: Cliff Creek fire now 84 percent contained
UPDATE 8/2/2016 10:30 a.m: The Cliff Creek fire has now grown to 29,429 acres. It is now 84 percent contained.
UPDATE: 8/1/16 9 a.m:The Cliff Creek fire has now grown to 29,018 acres. It is now 81 percent contained.
UPDATE 7/29/2016 10:45 a.m: The Cliff Creek Fire burning north of Bondurant, Wyoming is now 20 percent contained according to the US Forest Service.
As of Friday morning the lightning caused fire has burned a total of 26,818 acres. There are a total of 707 people fighting the fire.
UPDATE 7/28/2016 3:40 p.m: Officials with the Cliff Creek Incident Command Team are not sure at this time when they will lift the evacuations and recreation closures in the Granite Creek area. At this time they plan to reassess the situation after they finish burn out operations in a couple days.
Cliff Creek Incident Command Team Public Information Officer says as soon as it is safe to do so they will let property owners to go back home, at least temporarily, to look things over, gather possessions, and prepare for winter.
UPDATE 7/28/2016 10:35 a.m:The estimated size of the fire has been adjusted to 23,995 acres
ORIGINAL STORY: Firefighters are working to actively suppress the Cliff Creek fire, which started by lightning on July 17 about five miles north of Bondurant, Wyoming. The fire was last estimated at 21,483 acres and was 15 percent contained.
721 firefighters are planning to continue burnout operations Thursday. A burnout is an attempt to set fire inside a control line to consume fuel between the edge of a fire and the control line.
A forecast wind shift from southwest to northwest would increase interior burning and new areas of fire. Thunderstorms could bring unpredictable winds with gusts to 40 miles per hour.
The public can expect an increase in smoke coming from the fire area. In fact, Incident Commander Tony DeMasters said the fire could grow an additional two thousand acres Thursday as part of the burnout activity.
The fire will be permitted to play a natural ecological role as it moves towards and into the Gros Ventre Wilderness.
Crews will be working to keep the fire south and east of the Granite Creek drainage bottom and north of Dell and Jack Creek.
The Kozy and Granite Creek campgrounds remain closed.
