Smok'en Bozeman!

[Hellmtflies]

For those of you who may have fished here in Bozeman, Mt. or have come here to visit YNP or ski here is a reality check. The Bridger Mountains are up in a blaze. The fire just outside of Bozeman started yesterday at only 80 acres the went to 400 last night. Then today the wind blew hard in 98 degree heat and the blaze now over 500 acres and headed north to Bridger Bowl Ski area. 250 homes are in danger. Reports have it that Bridger Bowl Ski Resort may be overcome by tomorrow. All trailheads are closed in the Bridgers and all folks have been evacuated from the Jackson Creek area. Here are a few photos taken by my better half today.
Mark

[pescaconDios]

I was over the Bozeman way today, indeed very hot and quite windy. Looks like this fire is now 11,000+ acres late tonight. Sad and scary. Hope everyone followed the evacuation orders, and I hope the cooler, wetter weather in the next 24-48 hours will help them get this fire contained.

[ibookje]

Jeez not again?...
In 2018 half the State was in fire too.

Hope my friends in the area are safe

[Hellmtflies]

Yup, 11,000 acres as of today, Sunday.

[PAGene]

Back in the early 1980s I had a coworker & friend who had a place on Bridger canyon road about ½ the way between Boseman and the ski area. If he and his family are still there, I hope then stay safe.

[DireWolf53]

Hope yu fare better than we are doing in CA. Pandemic shut downs and the crazy wild fire season have conspired to cut down my time on the water to a trickle. As they say in baseball wait until next year.

[bassman]

What worries me for so many of those people in CA and OR and any other state with the fires roaring through forests and homes is the air pollution. If I lived in those areas I'd have to be running for cleaner air. Thanks to the air pollution so many of us lived in for years and the smoking that used to be so accepted anywhere. Even restaurants with a no smoking area were usually only divided by air. I bring this up because COPD, what we used to call emphysema and bronchitis, are so common today the conditions in those fire zones would destroy the breathing ability of any of us suffering from this. I have to use supplementary oxygen just for heavy allergen days and a cold I had recently knocked me flat. Those of us, and we are many, with COPD are a definite statistic if we contract Covid so people in our town and county who have ZERO active cases understand when I go to the store with my mask and face shield and I doubt those would help in the burn zones in the west right now.

[snorider]

Luckily the snow on the 7th saved us! 8200 acres and 28homes lost. Sad but without the 10" of snow over the fire on 9/7 it would have been a whole lot worse. I was heading home from camping, having left as the fire went from a little puff to a mushroom cloud,I really did not even want to see what had happened. That snow was so incredible to see! I spent most of my life wandering the country that burned having skied most of the possible lines in Mark's photos. It was a hold over lighting strike that caused it. Initial reports were a college freshman burning toilet paper, the lighting strike was good news as it gives me a little more hope for humanity. The fire is all but out now, and a HUGE THANKS to the firefighters! One group got pinned down and burned over, had to deploy fire shelters, we called em shake and bake bags when I worked for the USFS. Simply a miracle they all survived. Now the smoke is actually worse but the fires are in OR and WA. Rain this weekend should bring better air...