The Skillet Fire was reported at 2,495 acres and 0% contained with 298 personnel members on Tuesday.  

Due to the absence of an infrared mapping flight Monday night, the reported acreage remained unchanged from Monday.  

The Skillet Fire is located about 15 miles west of Olney. It started by lightning Wednesday afternoon, July 29 and quickly spread northeast, prompting evacuation orders for the Good Creek/Alder Creek area.  

A fire watch was issued Saturday and wildfire smoke reached unhealthy levels in the Flathead Valley on Sunday as a cool front moved in.  

The cooler temperatures will be short lived as warm and dry trends and wind speed are all expected to increase throughout the week.  

On Sunday, crews successfully established an anchor in Bowen Creek area and are wrapping that to the Robertson Creek area.  

Crews have worked in the north to tie the fire to the 2023 East Fork fire perimeter, and in the south into Alder Creek proper.  

"That will allow us to corral, create a catcher's mitt around it," said Ryan Jones, operations section chief with Great Basin Complex Incident Management Team 7, in a video update Monday.  

From there, crews will connect from Alder Creek to Robertson Creek. 

"We are going to continue that for the next 72 to 96 hours," Jones reported on Tuesday morning.  

Crews anticipate making good direct line construction with heavy equipment, Jones said.  

"We're starting to secure in there and put in hose lays to support that with water," Jones continued.  

The northwest side of the fire will see dozers, hand crews and aviation crews continue work to move towards the East Fork burn scar.  

Around the structures on the south end of the fire, sprinklers and hoses are staged to be quickly deployed if the fire progresses. 

On Monday, a helicopter delivered structure wrap to the Elk Mountain Lookout. The wrap will be used to protect it if fire reaches that area. 

Heavy smoke will continue to drift in from local fires in addition to fires in Oregon and Washington. Local smoke information and forecasts can be found at: https://deq.mt.gov/air/Programs/smokeforecasts. 

Fire officials were expected to host a community meeting at the Olney Fire Department at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 4. A recording of the meeting is expected to be posted on the Flathead National Forest Facebook page.