We didn’t start the fire

But why were there so many people around to put it out?

It took one week and 571 personnel members, but full containment of the Indian Fire was announced on the morning of Aug. 15.

The Indian Fire started on Wednesday, Aug. 8 at approximately 2:06 p.m. and was burning southeast of Mono Lake and North of Hwy 120. While the fire never threatened any structures or human lives, it did threaten sage grouse habitat as well as some transmission lines supplying electricity to Southern California. These are the two main reasons, in addition to the fire’s size, which have been cited as the reason for the large amount of resources put on the fire.

United Stated Forest Service Incident Commander Mike Wakoski described it as an “exciting fire” when he briefed the Mono County Board of Supervisors this past Tuesday.

“It has burned 12,574 acres,” Wakoski said. “An acre is the size of a football field, so it burned about 13,000 football fields. It had a wind to it so we had to wait for it to slow down to get around it.” The final official count was 12,574 acres.

“There was a threat to power lines which is why there were so many resources thrown at it,” Wakoski continued. “If the power grid had been affected, Southern California would have been without air conditioning.”

Public Information Officer Bob Boole added, in a phone conversation on Wednesday, that 571 people on a fire was not an unusual situation.

“Most crews carry 20 people, so you have five crews and you’re already at 100 people,” he explained.

Editor’s note: We double-checked the math and it’s accurate!

According to Boole, Lee Vining, Wheeler Crest and Mammoth Lakes Fire departments were involved in the fire suppression in one way or another.

Firefighters were expected to continue to build and improve containment lines, mop up any hot spots, and repair any impacts caused by fire suppression through the end of the week.