11:00 am update: Incident Commander Jim Shank now says that the Speelyai Fire is about 95% contained, and he now has crews starting work on the mopup of the fire. Shank puts the mopup percentage about 20% at this time. He says that they had extremely good success with the crews that laid down explosive cord to help create fire lines, using that cord to line out about 2,100 feet of fire line in steep and hazardous ground. He says the mopup should take several more days, and work is also continuing to try and determine the cause of the fire. He says that they haven’t yet pinpointed the cause, but he says that it looks like the fire was human-caused. Shank says there wasn’t any lightning in the area prior to the fire’s discovery on Saturday afternoon. More than 200 firefighters are currently involved in battling the fire.
With more than 200 firefighters on the line, the Department of Natural Resources continues to battle the Speelyai Fire near Lake Merwin. Incident Commander Jim Shank now says that the fire is about 30 percent contained, and has burned somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 acres. He says that the fire is burning in extremely steep and rocky terrain, burning on land that’s owned by DNR and by private companies. Because of the difficulty in the terrain, specialized crews have been brought in to use explosives to help dig the trenches needed to contain the fire. Shank now says that they expect to have the fire fully contained by tomorrow, but it may take a couple of weeks to get everything put out. He says that they also dealt with three small spot fires that spawned from the main fire; all three of those fires are out. Two forest roads, the 6600 and the A-1000, remain closed, so fire crews can freely move through the area. The cause of the Speelyai Fire, which was first reported Saturday afternoon, remains under investigation.
