Butler Fire Report - 7/22/2025

Cover photo courtesy of Six Rivers National Forest.

Lookout Livestream

Overview Maps

Summary

There was fairly subdued activity over the past 24 hours, with mainly slow, backing progression towards the community of Forks of Salmon. The fire is currently most active in McNeal Creek. The fire is generally not spreading very readily within areas burned within the last nine years. According to the Community Liason, Karuna Greenberg, there is some tension between fire teams and locals, particularly in the Godfrey Ranch area, where residents are preparing structures without significant fire team support. Strong winds have hindered strategic firing operations. The Salmon River Orleans Complexities Facebook page is a key source of local information.

Infrared Analysis, Maps, and Fire Spread

Zeke reviews the infrared data from the previous night, noting the fire’s progression towards the Forks of Salmon.
The fire has been slowing down, moving only 200 to 400 yards a day towards the Forks of Salmon community.

Map Legend:
The burned area is shaded in transparent red.
The heavy white line shows the previous 24 hours of fire growth.
The light white line shows the previous 48 hours of fire growth.
Yellow areas are recently burned, but cooling down.
Orange-Red areas are intense fire.
Blue areas have burned since 2020.

View over Crapo Creek, looking upriver. There has been very little spread on this flank for several days except for in areas where the heavy white line is visible.

View up McNeal Creek, looking SW. A firing operation from the night of 7/19 is on the left, and continues to back and flank down toward Cecilville Road. According to Karuna, this area is likely experiencing beneficial low-moderate severity fire effects. The fire made a hard push east out of McNeal Creek several days ago, and has flanked away from that run over past several days. It is making some head-fire runs to the south, toward the 2013 Butler Fire scar. Blue areas burned in 2020.

Looking west over Forks of Salmon. The fire didn’t spread much in Murderers Gulch (right side of map) yesterday. White line shows previous 24 hours of fire spread. The fire continues to back down to Sawyers Bar Road. Blue areas have burned in past 5 years. Red line outside of the firing operation on the far-left side of the screen is likely a mapping error.

Fire Activity and Structures

According to IR flights, the fire didn’t spread much in some areas of Murderers Gulch, between 3 PM and 11 PM the previous day.
The fire is actively spreading in a few areas, particularly in Lower Crapo Creek, but has not spread down from the upper slopes of the Hog Range.

McNeal Creek and Fire Operations

Zeke discusses the most active part of the fire, McNeal Creek, where a firing operation was conducted three days ago.
The fire is slowly moving down from the ridge, with moderate fire effects.
In the Salmon River country, fires have generally been slowing down in areas that burned within the last nine years, according to Karuna Greenberg.

Contingency Plans and Fire Behavior

Zeke mentions a tentative plan to hold the fire at Knownothing Creek and the contingency line being worked on on Hotelling Ridge.
Karuna reports that the contingency line on Hotelling Ridge will not likely be ready for use for several days, if at all.
The fire might not burn into the 2020 burn area with any severity, especially under current moister and cooler conditions
Upper McNeal Creek is burning with an uphill head fire, but it’s moving slowly.

Crews are preparing contingency lines on Hotelling Ridge in case the fire continues to spread into the 2020 Red Salmon Complex burn, shown in blue. Spot fires into the previous fire haven’t done much in past 3 days.

Godfrey Ranch and Community Tensions

Karuna reported on tensions with the locals at Godfrey Ranch on the Salmon River and Orleans Complexities Facebook Page.
The fire management team is advising people not to be in Godfrey Ranch, but also not providing sprinklers or structure preparation.
Locals are hesitant to leave because there are no firefighters present, leading to tension.

Firefighter Safety and Evacuation Orders

Zeke discusses the challenges firefighters face in dangerous, midslope communities like Godfrey Ranch.
He notes the historical lack of fire activity in Godfrey Ranch since 1987.

Fire’s Relationship to Godfrey Ranch Area. Yellow dots are structures.

Strategic Firing Operations

According to Karuna planned strategic firing operations for 7/21 were canceled due to strong winds.
Winds were stronger than forecast, though temps are lower and RHs are higher due to marine influence.
Much of the fire which has backed down to the river has been low-intensity, and in may places, crews have used strategic firing ops to bring fire down to structures on their own timeline.

Conclusion

Though the fire has been moving slowly and there has been a break from the hot weather, there is still major potential for this fire to grow in several directions, especially to the east toward Godfrey Ranch. See the weather and fire behavior forecasts, below.