Salmon, Idaho (KMVT-TV) - The Fire north of the main Salmon River is currently 6 miles west of the community of North Fork, officials with the forest service are telling us. As of 8 am this morning, 962 personnel are battling the blaze. Today’s forecast has cooler air containing some higher moisture levels are moving into the area today on northwest winds. This change in temperature and relative humidity levels will produce a more stable atmosphere over the fire and also keep the valleys smoked in for a longer period of time today. The valley inversions should break up by mid-afternoon.
Nonetheless, strong northwest winds mixing down may overcome cooler temperatures and higher relative humidity’s, thus a Red Flag Warning has been issued for today from noon to 9:00 p.m. Channeling of winds in northwest to southeast aligned valleys and canyons may increase fire behavior and growth during the prime burn period which has been 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Including the Cabin Springs Fire, the Mustang Complex has now grown to 241,701 acres. The most pronounced growth again was on the eastern perimeter of the fire primarily due to yesterday’s westerly winds pushing the fire in this direction. At its closest point, the fire is about three air miles from Highway 93. The fire is continuing to grow in the upper drainages of Sage, Hull, and Hughes Creeks. The fire also grew farther south in the Indian Creek drainage. Along the Salmon River Road east of Corn Creek, rocks and other fire debris continues to roll
down the mountains onto the roadway. A rock slide occurred yesterday temporarily halting traffic. The river road remains open; however, there may be periodic delays in traffic flow as a road grader clears rocks and fire debris from this three-mile section of road. Fire growth on the north side of the fire was less pronounced yesterday with last night’s infrared mapping showing scattered heat dominating the northern fire perimeter as opposed to intense heat presently seen on the eastern flank of the fire.
Evacuation Levels were elevated last night for portions of the Highway 93 corridor from North Fork to Gibbonsville. Due to the increase in evacuation levels last night, the Incident Commander has decided to postpone the community meeting that was planned for tonight. The meeting will be held on a later date this week. To prevent security issues from becoming a concern in evacuated communities, the Idaho National Guard has been mobilized and is staffing checkpoints and providing 24/7 security in evacuated communities.
The contingency work along the Highway 93 corridor is essentially completed and work crews continue to review existing mitigation for further possible improvements. Contingency work is also being completed in Montana’s Hughes Creek community and the Lost Trail Pass ski area.

When Wildfire Approaches - Evacuation Actions to Consider
The Lemhi County Sheriff has announced new evacuation levels for the Mustang Complex effective September 3, 2012, 7:30
p.m. Residents preparing for a possible evacuation should maintain situational awareness by continuing to monitor local news
media and Inciweb for further updates. Useful advice for making near-term preparations to evacuate can be found at
http://www.wildlandfirersg.org/ ; some other evacuation tips are as follows:

Remember the four Ps:

o Papers - Gather and take important documents you can’t replace.
o Photos: Whether on paper or on a computer or discs, think through what you don’t want to leave behind.
o Pills: Make sure you have a supply of your medications and your doctors’ phone numbers to get prescriptions
refilled.
o Pets: Bring crates, medications, leashes and pet food for your pets.

Pre-load trailers with essentials and hook up to vehicle.
Compile a list of phone numbers for people you will want to notify of your location after your evacuation. If you have
cell phones, bring car chargers and wall chargers.
Wear sensible shoes and clothing appropriate for changing weather.
Clear the area around your home of as many combustibles as possible, especially wood piles, gas grills, lawn furniture
and plastics.

Close all doors to the house, open the fireplace damper, close the fireplace screen.

Shut off the gas, propane and fuel supplies.

Connect garden hoses; fill pools, hot tubs, garbage cans and other large containers with water.

Place an aluminum ladder against the house in plain view of the driveway.

Prepare your car(s): Back into the driveway; roll up windows, leave doors UNLOCKED. Make sure you have ½ tank of
fuel or more in your vehicle(s).

Disconnect garage door openers so doors can still be opened by hand without power then close the doors.
Put anything from the list of the 4 Ps in your car that you can before you have to rush out the door.

Release any livestock from barns to pasture in the area. You may want to open gates so livestock can escape if
necessary.

The Lemhi County Fairgrounds will accept large animals. Additionally, large animals will be accepted at some private
landowner pastures. To coordinate acceptance for smaller numbers of livestock, please contact the Red Cross representative
at 208-756-8980 on a 24/7 basis.

The Fire Information Center at the North Fork Fire Station continues to be staffed with Public

Information Officers ready to answer questions about the upgraded evacuation levels and the fire.