As firefighters work to contain the Canyon Creek Complex wildfire, high winds and hot temperatures mean the fire keeps growing.
The fire has spread to more than 61,000 acres and firefighters are up against the weather to keep it from growing.
“Firefighters are doing pretty well as far as getting the line buttoned up, and they’re doing a lot of good work,” said fire information officer Vince Mazzier. “We’ll just see what happens this afternoon with the wind.”
That wind is what is giving firefighters trouble. They expect wind gusts to reach as much as 35 miles per hour.
“It does cause the fire to move in the direction of the wind, which is going to be somewhere out of the west to northwest, so that will push the southern end of the fire into the wilderness.”
So that’s where they’re working the hardest. A new fire started Thursday about 12 miles west in Prairie City. Fire officials are calling it the Jerry’s Draw Fire and don’t expect it to join with Canyon Creek.