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Wednesday’s storms produced colder temperatures and precipitation, which resulted in a better relative humidity recovery, which makes fine fuels less prone to ignite. Throughout yesterday morning the fire behavior was low, mostly creeping and smoldering. As the day progressed humidity returned to the teens which dried fuels, and allowed afternoon winds to stir up flames. The rainfall across the fire was not enough to put the fire out. A fire of this size, in this fuel type requires a significant and persistent winter storm to completely cool the larger fuels like logs and stumps. Even when the fire is 100% contained, there will be interior activity that may show smoke and flames from time to time.  
  

The outflow winds from Wednesday’s storm took down serval large fire-damaged trees, some of which fell into road ways. Crews spent a lot of time removing these trees and will continue throughout today. Willow Creek continues to pose a challenge for firefighters but steady progress is being made. Along the eastern and southwestern edges of the fire area, where they have recently increased containment, firefighters are completing the final stages of mop up. These last steps include gridding and cold trailing. Gridding is a systemic approach to locating small fires by having firefighters walk in parallel lines along the fire’s edge carefully looking for heat. Cold trailing is a mop up technique where firefighters carefully inspect and feel with the hand for heat to detect any fire, digging out every live spot to extinguish them. The mop up process is time consuming but critical to ensure safety and containment. 
  

Weather: Milder temperatures in the 70’s will persist today, humidity in the teens and north winds gusting 6-12 mph during the morning then decreasing to 4-9 mph in the afternoon. 
 

Fire Restrictions: There are currently no fire restrictions in the area, but residents and visitors are encouraged to exercise extreme caution if building campfires. Fire restrictions are determined by interagency guidelines including a “persistence of fire danger” in terms of fuel moisture levels and long-term weather forecasts. For more information on local fire restrictions, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/vptsh85r.   
 

Air Quality:  Specific information about local smoke levels, forecasts, and possible health impacts is available at https://outlooks.airfire.org/outlook/cc0ac676/.
  

Evacuation Information: Valley County Sheriff evacuation orders (Go) are still in place for residents of Campbell Creek and French Creek. God’s Acres residents are in the pre-evacuation stage (Set). Please visit www.wildlandfirersg.org for evacuation level information. Valley County Sheriff's Office will announce any changes to the evacuation status (208.382.5160). 
 

Closure Information:  Access to hunting unit 32 A near the Fawn Creek area is very limited as the main route in from the west is in the closure area. A security guard is posted at the intersection of Cabarton and Snowbank Road and will not allow individuals through. The complete closure order for the Boise and Payette National Forests – including a full description and an accompanying map – is available at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/closures/8331/.