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UPDATED: South Entrance To Yellowstone National Park Closed By Grand Teton Fire

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The Maple Fire was bearing down on the West Entrance Road in Yellowstone National Park/Screengrab from NPS video

Editor's note: This updates with details on the Maple Fire burning near the West Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

While smoky conditions and firefighting activity in Grand Teton National Park on Tuesday kept the south entrance road into Yellowstone National Park closed, a wall of fire was moving towards the West Entrance Road inside Yellowstone.

Fire bosses were confident that they could keep the so-called Maple Fire from reaching the West Entrance Road, they were developing contingency plans in case the fire changed directions and moved towards West Yellowstone.

"The Maple fire, currently 27,101 acres, grew an additional 4,653 acres yesterday," a report posted at midday Tuesday said. "An infrared mapping flight was conducted last night. Similar to Monday, the majority of the new growth was on the northern flanks of the fire. The western edge of the fire showed slight growth, mostly due to the fire backing into the wind."

Part of the firefighting plan was to institute traffic control along the West Entrance Road if needed. Additionally, "burn-out operations are anticipated to take place along the West Entrance Road to Madison Junction and administrative site road if the fire reaches the Madison River. A night shift is in place to assist with traffic control and a firefighter presence will be in place as needed."

A short video of the Maple Fire, shot Saturday, can be found at this site.

Meanwhile, the Berry Fire in Grand Teton not only led to closure of the South Entrance Road into Yellowstone National Park but also forced the evacuation of a campground in Grand Teton as well as a lodging complex in the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway.

A release late Tuesday morning from Yellowstone said, "Grand Teton National Park has closed the section of road between Leeks Marina and Yellowstone's South Entrance due to increased activity on the Berry fire." The road was not expected to reopen Tuesday.

There was no mention of how close the 6,319-acre fire was to the road, and calls to Grand Teton fire officials were met with a recorded message that provided few details. However, a report on the federal government's Incident Reporting System said the fire was exhibiting intense fire behavior.

Extreme fire behavior with short crown runs, long range spotting and group torching. Red flag weather with high winds caused the fire to spot across Jackson Lake and make a five-mile run to the east northeast onto the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Monday evening the decision was made to evacuate the Lizard Creek Campground on the northern tip of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton, and on Tuesday the evacuation was extended to the Headwaters Lodge at Flagg Ranch operation in the parkway.

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Please everyone, stay safe.  God bless you all.

 


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