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Yesterday: The Goat Rocks Fire area continued to be impacted by smoke for much of the day with the Coal Creek and Lake Creek drainages seeing some of the densest smoke impacts. Containment increased to 4% after extensive work along the ridge between the Coal Creek and Lake Creek drainages. Poor visibility continues to limit air operations over much of the fire area. A large Type 1 helicopter was able to drop water on the fire for a short period in the afternoon in the Lake Creek drainage.

Heavy equipment moved from the 46 road system to Forest Roads 1266 and 41 to start woody debris removal in that corridor.

Today: Fire activity has diminished over the northern section of the fire footprint over the past few days. Resources are patrolling the Forest Road 46 system, cooling fire by the roads.  Engines are patrolling around the structures and testing pumps and hoses.

Many of the firefighting resources have been moved to Division A, on the southwest side of the fire, to help increase contingency lines in the Lake Creek drainage. Crews continue to engage the fire near the Three Peaks trail system where it is safe to do so with both water and handline. Due to steep terrain and heavy fuel loading, the fire is expected to continue to smolder in the thick duff layers, burning roots and large logs.

Structures near Packwood Lake in the Lake Creek drainage have been prepared with fire resistant shielding and fuels have been removed to reduce the risk to the structures should fire move into that area.

Weather: Today will be a weather transition day. The first half of the day will continue to see the smoke inversion linger. The inversion is expected to lift mid-day. The approaching weather system may bring erratic winds, with winds out of the southwest up to 25 mph on the ridge tops and winds of 4-8 mph with gust up to 12 on the lower slopes. A series of storms will enter the area starting Friday bringing much needed precipitation to the fire area.

EVACUATION LEVEL 2 – BE SET!     

All areas north of Butter Creek are at Level 2 (Be Set) evacuation. This includes Upper and Lower Timberline, Goat Rocks, Riverdance, and parts of High Valley. This is precautionary due to Goat Rocks Fire behavior. Packwood proper is not under evacuation status at this time. See accompanying Public Information map.

Monitor https://bit.ly/LewisCountyAlerts or https://bit.ly/LewisCountyEMFB for changes.

Forest Closures: A road and trail closure within the Gifford National Forest is in place. Closure order: https://bit.ly/GoatRocksClosureOrder
Closure map: https://bit.ly/GoatRocksFireClosureMap