Crews combat wildfire in Big Creek

Well that certainly didn’t take long...

Less than a week after Shoshone County had its first wildfire of the season north of Mullan, another has appeared down the interstate.

According to Chris Myers, Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) firefighter, the blaze was caused over the weekend by a lightning strike to the ridge top southeast of the Crescent and Sunshine Mines in Big Creek.

Due to the lack of roads in the area and steep terrain, IDL was forced to use small teams and a helicopter to fight the flames.

A six man crew worked all day Sunday in conjunction with fire suppression helicopters relentlessly dropping water on the moderately sized hillside fire.

Using the Shoshone County airport in Smelterville as a fuel refueling station, the helicopters had been relying on the Big Creek repository pond to fill up their baskets with water to then dump on the blaze.

With these combined efforts, Myers says that the fire has been 100 percent contained as of Monday morning.

Aside from wilderness being affected, no damage to people or property occurred as a result of the fire.

A five man crew worked through Monday and conducted mop up operations to ensure that all hot spots where extinguished.