The 320 firefighters on the Dollar Lake Fire north of Pinedale face daunting conditions as they battle the 13,449-acre blaze burning in heavy timber on steep and rocky ground, the incident commander told WyoFile on Tuesday.

August Isernhagen of the Sierra Front/Nevada Team 5 interagency fire team said his group hoped to establish some containment around the fire as cooler weather provides a break. A situation report Tuesday listed 0% containment, which Isernhagen hopes to change.

“The forest is overgrown and has a lot of dead tree material that historically would have burned,” he said in a telephone interview. “Due to fire suppression over the [last] century, it has built up.”

His team described a forest of “lodgepole, mixed conifer with dead and down trees [that’s] receptive to burning

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