BY KAREN BOSSICK

More resources are arriving as the Wapiti Fire threatening Stanley and Stanley Lake has climbed to the No. 1 priority fire for the nation.

Firefighters working on the fire, which is threatening neighborhoods west of Stanley, got a respite from multiple days of Red Flag Warnings and extreme burning conditions on Saturday and Sunday as they declared a full suppression fire.

The area had a 50/50 chance of showers Sunday evening with temperatures dropping to 27 degrees before climbing to 73 degrees today. Morning temperatures below freezing will continue through the week, which should help mitigate extreme fire conditions. Light winds will continue until Tuesday when they could climb to 15 miles per hour in the afternoon.

Anne Jeffery, a former fire information officer who worked a fire in Stanley years ago, supplied this infrared map showing the breadth of the Wapiti Fire.

The fire, started by lightning two miles southwest of Grandjean on July 24, had consumed 68,457 acres by Sunday. That’s more than the 2007 Castle Rock Fire, which burned 4,520 acres of Smoky Mountain backcountry around Ketchum. The fire grow more than 20,000 acres in a 24-hour period before the wind settled down.

The Boise National Forest managed the fire until deciding to request a Complex Incident Management Team.

The fire is zero percent contained.

The fire had progressed south of Stanley Lake, moving east towards Highway 21 on Sunday. It also has established itself in the Baron Creek drainage southwest of Stanley and the Elk Creek drainage.

It is decimating heavy dead fuels, as well as timber understory, shrubs and intermixed conifer stands. Groups of trees are torching and embers are spotting as far as a mile away from their origination. Fire is making uphill runs on steep slopes.

Additional resources are incoming to help build dozer and hand lines, lay hose and set up portable water tanks around homes to protect structures. Aircraft are scooping water out of Redfish Lake to dump on the fire.

Currently there are 461 firefighters on the scene, managed by the Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Team 1, which took over management at midday Saturday, Aug. 24.

The command promises that opportunities to contain the fire’s edges are being aggressively pursued where safe to do so.

Firefighters are mopping up around structures in the Cow Camp area, dousing hot spots and constructing lines around Halstead, Iron Creek, Goat Falls neighborhoods—basically Stanley’s suburbs. Some of the neighborhoods are thickly wooded. Firefighters are clearing trees along the Highway 21 corridor as they mop up areas where the fire crossed the road.

Fire came close to but did not damage the Elk Creek Campground, firefighters said. But it may have blown through the Park Creek ski trails, judging from fire maps.

Highway 21 is basically closed from Stanley to Lowman. There is no estimate for when it will reopen.

A fire camp has been set up at Smiley Creek.

Sunday morning the smoke was thick in Stanley, according to Hailey residents passing through. It has been drifting east across Challis to Salmon, which is also getting smoke from fires near Hamilton and Stevensville, Mont., when the winds shift.

Firefighters have used a drone in the Warm Springs drainage to identify opportunities to drop flaming balls to bring the fire down to the bottom of the drainage to contain it. But there were no plans as of Sunday to initiate a firing operation. Meteorological stations and weather balloons are also collecting detailed information.

The Red Cross of Idaho and East Oregon has opened a shelter at the Stanley Community Center in Stanley for those displaced by the fire.

The fire already has burned several cabins in Grandjean, and three structures near the Sawtooth Lodge.

Firefighters are fighting several large fires in West Idaho, including those around Garden Valley, Cascade and Warm Springs Lake. The Wapiti Fire has nearly merged with the 270-acre Bull Trout fire to the northwest.

As of Sunday morning, there have been 254 fires in the state, burning more than 24,000 acres.