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Williams Mine Fire Update for Saturday, September 14, 2024 

The weather was warmer and drier on Friday, but the Williams Mine Fire remained quiet. Light rain fell overnight, with more possible over the weekend. This is not expected to be a wetting rain, but will help cool remaining heat.

Friday, a flight over the fire found a little smoke rising from the north end near Salt Creek, well within the Mt. Adams Wilderness. No obvious smoke was seen in the Morrison Creek drainage west of South Climb Trail, although some of the large logs and stumps are likely to still be smoldering. The Cascade Creek drainage has an area being closely watched due to residual heat, in the Wilderness far from the edge of the fire. Smoke was also seen in the Buck Creek drainage near FS Rd 020. This area has some younger stands of green trees where the fire did not burn as readily as in areas with older trees. This resulted in scattered unburned pockets of green vegetation, with the fire continuing to creep through some of them. 

Besides the visible smokes, there are always hot areas that may be smoldering with no obvious smoke production. Sometimes these can be located by infrared flights, but some are too small or the heat is obscured by vegetation or their position on or in the ground. To find these, fire personnel are actively walking and driving the control lines, looking and smelling for smoke. 

If a hot area is identified, it is assessed to see how much of a danger it poses of spreading past control lines or into other sensitive areas such as recreation sites. Most of the remaining hot spots are being found far to the interior of the fire, in places where extinguishing them would pose a lot of risk to the firefighters without providing much benefit in terms of controlling the fire or protecting resources.

With the size of this fire and the large number of burning logs, snags, and stumps, people living, driving, and hiking near the fire can expect to see smoke rising from the Williams Mine Fire for months. Rain and snow will eventually extinguish all or most of the remaining embers. There is a chance that some fire will smolder underground all winter and resurface in the spring. Fire personnel will be watching for this.

SAFETY AND CLOSURES: 

As the weather shifts to cooler with more rain, adjust clothing and gear when enjoying the outdoors. Avoid hypothermia. Switch from cotton to synthetics or wool, and bring layers to protect from wind and rain. 

The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Tract D Recreation Area is currently closed, please see Yakama Tract D Road Closure for more information. FS Rd 23 south of FS Rd 90 is still CLOSED to the public due to fire suppression activity. Takhlakh Lake is still closed. The revised closure for the Mt. Adams Wilderness and FS Rd 23 closure can be found at Williams Mine Fire: Area and Road Closure. The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is closed from the PCT's intersection with FS Rd 23 to Potato Hill. The current area closure spans the entire Mt. Adams Wilderness.