Inkspot Fire Information

Started: 26 July / Out:  

UTMs: 545 x 4957

Update - 01 Aug - Wed

Arthur Fire ground crews assisted the park on the Inkspot Fire that was caused by an illegal unattended campfire near Washburn Hot Springs southeast of Mount Washburn on July 26.

This fire is close to containment and is currently estimated to be around 3 acres.

Good progress was made on the top of the fire, but high winds hampered the suppression efforts in all helicopter operations which were shut down in the afternoon. Strong, gusty winds were blowing over 35 mph, which prevented the blivets from being flown in or bucket drops being used. The crew personnel on the fire walked out to the highway as it was still too windy at the end of the shift to fly the helicopter. The helicopter was left at the Canyon helispot also due to the high winds.
 
A suitable water source was found to use a larger pump. The pump and other water handling equip will be flown in on Sunday, 7/29. The fire continues to burn very hot and the mop up is very extensive and will require a more significant amount of water than has been available so far. The weather forecast for the next week is continued hot, dry and windy. Under these conditions it will probably take at least 7-10 days to wrap this fire up, longer if the additional pump does not provide the amount of water anticipated.
 
There was no growth in the fire today, even under the extreme fire behavior conditions. There were no accidents or injuries or incidents on the fire today. Good support continues from all divisions and AmFac.

The Inkspot fire was reported at 11:10 am by the Mount Washburn lookout. The fire is burning approximately 5 miles south of the lookout near Washburn Hot Springs. Fire Management Officer (FMO) Phil Perkins and Acting Prescribed Fire Specialist (PFS) Steve Petrick-Underwood flew to the fire to investigate the cause. The fire was determined to be human-caused as a warming fire ring was found just into the trees from the hot spring area. The burned pattern left the fire ring into the wildland fuels and there was no evidence of any lightning-struck tree. (The lightning maps were carefully reviewed by Steve upon arrival back at Mammoth). 
 
Andy Mitchell, the park Suppression Specialist, Assistant Fire Management Officer (AFMO) was assigned as Incident Commander (IC) with Steve Petrick-Underwood as Incident Commander Trainee (ICT3). Andy sized up the fire and returned to Mammoth where a plan was formulated to suppress the fire using Minimum Impact Management Tactics (MIMT). At the end of the day, the fire was approximately 3 acres in size. The fire can be seen from the Mount Washburn Fire WebCam. There will be approximately 20 personnel assigned to the fire beginning 7/27/01.