The Sand Creek Fire had grown to 27,736 acres on Thursday after burning through parts of Maverick Mountain Ski Area in southwestern Montana, but firefighters succeeded in protecting the ski lodge and nearby Elkhorn Hot Springs as the blaze pushed through the area.
Philip Knaub, operations section chief for the inter-agency Northern Rockies Complex Incident Management Team 3, said Thursday that Elkhorn Hot Springs was fully intact and no structures had been lost in the resort’s main facility area. The Maverick Mountain ski lodge and surrounding buildings also remained standing.
The fire did burn through parts of the ski area. The ski runs had been affected, although officials were still determining the severity of the damage and were optimistic that some live trees remained. A structure at the top of the mountain was lost, he said, but officials had not yet determined the extent of the damage.
Firefighters continued working around Maverick Mountain and Elkhorn Hot Springs, cooling residual heat near structures. Crews had built a direct handline from the top of Maverick Mountain to Grasshopper Creek to help hold the fire north of the ski lodge, while dozer line construction continued along the western side of Grasshopper Valley.
