Haystack Fire (Wildfire)

On 31JUL21, the Dillon Interagency Dispatch received a report of a possible fire start near Haystack Mtn, to the east of I-15 between the communities of Butte and Basin. Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Fire Crews responded with bucket drops from two T1 helicopters immediately after the report, and the Haystack Fire is currently assessed at approximately 150 acres, and the fire is traveling brokenly across timber scattered amongst this rocky terrain in a generally eastward direction. Agency Administrators and Fire Leadership are actively monitoring and assessing this fire with the assistance of air assets. The Haystack Fire is located in an area with large boulders, steep slopes, a large number of snags and difficult terrain. The safety of our Firefighters and the assessment by Fire Leadership and our pilots that we cannot safely insert nor extract our personnel from this location. This, in combination with fire behavior modeling and predictions for several scenarios, have been…