The Bacon Rind Fire south of Big Sky is starting to rekindle as the weather dries up.
The fire, burning on Yellowstone National Park lands, has flared up on Tuesday and Wednesday. Dry conditions and windy weather are to blame for the fire’s growth.
The biggest concern for fire crews is that the fire might jump the highway and be driven farther into the park.
“What we’ve been seeing, is that when it finds an opportunity to get up into a tree, it’ll crown, it’ll flare up and then it’ll throw some spots,” said Mary Ann Baumberger, Custer-Gallatin National Forest spokesperson.
Those spots, or embers, are swept in front of the fire by wind and then create new pockets of fire across the landscape.
The fire has already crossed both Snowslide Creek on its north side and Migration Creek on the south side. It’s burning up a ridge in the far northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park, but crews say they’re not sure it will be able to top the ridge and threaten lands to the north and east.
Crews are putting sprinkler systems on homes and structures near the fire and the speed limit on Highway 191 is down to 45 MPH through the fire zone. The road remains open and at this time pilot cars are not yet in use.
WEB EXTRA: Raw footage of the Bacon Rind Fire
