BY KAREN BOSSICK

Homeowners on the west side of the Sharps Fire breathed a sigh of relief Monday night as the Blaine County Sheriff lifted pre-evacuation orders in conjunction with the nightly fire briefing.

“We haven’t unpacked our car for five days. We’ve been driving everywhere with our belongings in the back seat,” she said, recounting how she and her husband Paul decided what to take in case they had to start all over again in the wake of the Sharps Fire. “And our cat ran off in all the excitement of the fire engines going down the road. We found her today.”

The Blaine County Sheriff lifted pre-evacuation orders for residents of East Fork Road, as well as those living between East Fork Road and Myrtle Street in Hailey Monday night.

The move came after firefighters buttoned down a pesky 1.5-mile section about eight miles east of Hailey that had been giving them fits. They also took advantage of temperatures in the 70s and light winds to make good progress on the northwest corner south of East Fork Road where fire had reportedly torching in conifers and aspen amidst gusty and down slope winds on Sunday.

The fire perimeter did not expand on Monday. The fire, which was started July 29 by a man shooting exploding targets, is now 60 percent contained.

Crews spent Monday constructing a line from Porcupine Creek to the east where the fire has yet to be contained. They are also constructing bulldozer and hand lines along the ridge between Copper and Thompson Creeks towards Swede Peak Trail.

The Great Basin Incident Team is shutting down the fire camp at EE-DA-HO Ranch east of Bellevue near where the fire started on Sunday, July 29. And they’re flying firefighters into a spike camp on the east side.

“They may do burnout operations on the north and east, which might cause smoke,” said Fire Information Officer Anne Jeffery. “We want people to know that if they see smoke it doesn’t mean that the fire has reignited. We’re burning a line so that if embers happen to blow on them hopefully they’ll die out because there’s no fuel to burn.”

While firefighters continued to suppress fire in the north and east, crews began to repair damage caused by fire suppression on the southeast flank of the fire from Little Wood Reservoir to Muldoon Road.

The objective is to repair damage caused by bulldozing lines, said Jeffery. Crews are tasked with minimizing surface and gully erosion and sediment delivery to stream channels. And they’re trying to restore damaged driving surfaces and make sure rainfall will be routed off the road.

They’re building water bars to drain water off the fire lines and prevent concentrated flow that might erode the soil. And they are removing berms on dozer lines to eliminate water channeling.

Winds are expected to be light over the next few days with gusts only getting into the teens. But high pressure is expected to intensify, bringing back hot, dry conditions. Overnight humidity, which is typically a boon to fire suppression, is expected to climb to less than 40 percent.

“One good thing is that the trees on the upper slopes, which could provide fuel for the fire, are not as dry as the grasses at lower elevation. So they shouldn’t burn as easily,” Jeffery said.

Seeding the area will come later.

Full containment is expected on Aug. 12.

While pre-evacuation orders have been lifted for homeowners, road closures and closures on federal lands in the vicinity of the fire remain in effect.

The Indian Creek Road, Ohio Gulch Road, East Fork Road, Slaughterhouse Canyon Road and Quigley Road remain closed where the pavement ends. The Muldoon Canyon Road is closed at EE-DA-HO Ranch.

Part of the Sawtooth National Forest in the vicinity of the fire has been closed for the public’s safety, as has BLM land in the south.

One Bellevue woman lamented that she hasn’t been able to walk her dog in the canyon near her home, even thought she understood the reason for the closure.

“The ironic thing is that I could get a $5,000 fine and six months in jail for stepping my foot on that land,” she said.  “I wonder if the man who started the fire will get as much.”