Weekend rains help Elbow Creek fire
By Paul Hall on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
WALLOWA, OR – Reports from the Elbow Creek fireline informed that substantial showers occurred throughout the fire damping any spread. Firefighters used this rainfall to their advantage, continuing mop-up operations and holding the fire in place. The fire remains stable at 22,960 acres and an increase in containment to 78 percent.
Mop-up will continue across the entire fire, with the Elbow Creek Drainage, Grossman Creek, and Sickfoot Creek being prioritized. Contingency work along the 62 and 6222 Roads will continue.
Resources will continue to be “right sized” for the incident, with many crews timing out or being demobilized. To accommodate this down-sizing, the Elgin Camp has been broken down and a spike camp along the 62 Road will be set up instead. Many hazards remain in the fire area, including fire weakened trees, stump holes, ash pits and many more. Additionally, heavy equipment, trucks and other firefighting apparatus remain active around the fire area. Staying off the roadways and out of the fire area allows these resources to continue to be effective. Thus, the Promise, Wallupa, and Troy Roads remain closed. To mitigate some of the listed hazards, the Umatilla National Forest remains closed as well.
