With high winds predicted for May 10 and a lack of additional resources to manage the fire, a decision was made the evening of May 9th to convert the burn to a wildland fire and begin suppression operations in the morning. The following photo was taken on the North Rim on May 10, 2000. On May 10th several large trees blew down across the North Rim entrance road. Crews were working to clear these trees when a previously undetected spot fire from the prescribed burn escaped containment and began moving toward the North Rim Entrance Road. The following photos were taken on the North Rim on May 12, 2000.
Fires can only grow and spread if favorable fuels, heat, and oxygen are available.
The fire crossed the North Rim Entrance Road at this location. Roads typically are used as barriers to the spread of fire as they create a break in fuels. Unfortunately in this case high winds carried flames and embers across the meadow into heavy fuels on the other side of the road. Driven by high winds, the Outlet fire grew to about 7,000 acres within 24 hours of spotting out of the established prescribed fire boundary. Much of the burn was in mixed conifer and subapline conifer forest, as opposed to the ponderosa pine forest in which the prescribed fire had been burning.