Wood Lake Fire

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The Wood Lake Fire was reported by the Prairie Reef lookout at 10am on Monday, August 17th with an estimated size of 3 acres. By 6 p.m. the same day its growth was estimated at 50 acres with active fire behavior and spotting a quarter of a mile ahead of the fire front. The fire is in steep, rugged terrain on the upper third of a north-facing slope. Crews constructed containment line to reinforce the retardant drops where the file had potential to advance toward Benchmark road.  The other portions of the fire burned into scabby timber and rock and the fire lost momentum to move.   Since containment line cannot be built within the rock, and the snag component within the perimeter poses a serious risk to firefighters, the 30% containment status will remain indefinitely.  On 8/23, the fire was transferred back to a type-IV incident commander, and most of the resources assigned to the fire were demobilized on 8/23 & 8/24.  As of 9/3, a type-V incident commander is in charge of this fire. Rocky Mountain Ranger District personnel will continue to patrol and mop up until seasonal weather terminates this fire.