HAILEY — The auditorium at the Community Campus in Hailey was packed Thursday night with people who live in Hailey; many are under pre-evacuation or mandatory evacuation notices. They attended the fire information meeting to get a thorough update and say now, they are feeling reassured.
“We intend to get a line around this whole fire - no ifs, ands or buts," Sharps Fire incident commander Beth Lund told the audience. "And so sometimes things complicate that if it gets up into some real rugged country. But right now I think I will have some good news for you. We have got to keep our fingers crossed though because this has been a windy day and tomorrow is going to be another windy day.”
Lund gave an update on the Sharp’s fire, utilizing an interactive infrared map to explain where crews are getting around the fire, show where it’s burning and explain where it’s contained.
Lund said their top priority and concern today was to secure the flank of the fire inching closer to a populated area of town, and firefighters have done a good job with that.
“It is at the head of Cove Creek and that is what we were concerned about, of course, because we know there is a lot of stuff down here in the East Fork," Lund said. "So this has been our priority today, that is where we have had most of our horse power, most of our helicopters working and this is where the fire is still pretty active. They’ve got it pretty well secured in there which makes me feel really good."
More than 500 people are working on the Sharps Fire and Lund says they have plenty of resources on the ground and in the air aggressively attacking it.
“It is really great to see a community come together like this in a time of need," Blaine County Sheriff Steve Harkins told residents. "I have lived here for a long time, I know many of you have as well, and we all support one another. And I said this during the floods, we are going to make it, we are going to be OK, we are going to get through this. What Beth told us tonight sounds very promising but we are not out of the woods yet.”
As of Thursday night, Lund said the Sharps Fire was about 55,000 acres and around 30 percent contained.
Sharps Fire continues to grow in size
There are still some mandatory and pre evacuations in place, as well as new pre-evacuation orders for a large area in Hailey. Sheriff Harkins tells KTVB more than 500 homes are under those orders.
KTVB spoke with some people who got pre-evacuation alerts Wednesday night; many feel encouraged after this update because of containment and the amount of resources.
“We have been watching not only the smoke but all the alerts and we’ve got a little practice at this because five years ago we had the same team here," said Jim McClatchy, who is under the pre-evacuation order. "And these guys say it’s great and important to be informed and coming here tonight and seeing this was extremely informative.”
But McClatchy knows Mother Nature does what she wants, and winds can change the course.
“You know from experience that when the winds get going five or six miles can sometimes only be minutes worth of time with the fire," he said.
Residents have started to prepare important belongings because pre-evacuation means be ready to go at a moments notice. Officials are also encouraging people to move large animals for precautionary reasons.
There are several road closures in the area as well, including Muldoon Canyon, Little Wood Reservoir, High Five, Baugh Creek, Bay Horse and Hunt roads. Quigley Road and Slaughterhouse Creek roads are also closed where the pavement ends.
A section of the Sawtooth National Forest near the fire is closed, as well as 128,000 acres of public lands in and around the fire in Blaine County.