Yellowstone Insider Your Complete Guide to America's First National Park
That’s OK. Though the fire started in a relatively remote area — next Beach Lake, about seven miles north of Bridge Bay Campground — the fear was that it would spread east and west to tourist facilities and historic buildings. Despite the 1988 fires that whipped through Yellowstone, there’s still a lot of backcountry ripe for a forest fire: lots of downed trees and underbrush.
That’s why the decision was made to bring in the big boys: the Incident Management Team 2. They implemented the strategy put forward by Park officials: let the fire burn to the burned-out areas created last fall by the Arnica Fire and set up control lines to the west and north to contain the blaze.
It worked. The fire is now totally contained. The Incident Management Team is home, the large firefighting base at Fishing Bridge is quiet, and all that’s left is for the Beach Fire is to smolder and burn itself out. Park Service officials will be flying over the 520 acres to make sure nothing unexpected happens. If all goes according to plan, there’s be a little smoke and the occasional flame kicked off by the Beach Fire — but that’s it.
Photos by Jess Secrest, Northern Rockies Type 2 Incident Management Team.
RELATED STORIES: Report from the Field: Yellowstone Beach Fire Now 95 Percent Contained; Report from the Field: Yellowstone Beach Fire Static; Local Control of Firefighting Slated for Tomorrow; Report from the Field: Yellowstone Beach Fire Now Three-Quarters Contained; Report from the Field: Beach Fire Stalls; Report From the Field: Beach Fire Grows Slightly; Beach Fire Up to 385 Acres; Containment Strategy Seems to Be Working; See the Yellowstone Beach Fire in Action From Mount Washburn; Report From the Field: Yellowstone Beach Fire Remains Steady; Yellowstone Beach Fire Spreads to 150 Acres; Another Fire Breaks Out in Yellowstone National Park
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