Incident management of the Keystone fire will be changing hands this week.

Management of the Keystone Fire will transition from the Type 2 Rocky Mountain Blue Team to a local Type 3 team on Tuesday, July 18, according to a Keystone Fire update.

Forest Service Spokesman Aaron Voos said the team working the fire has completed its required shift.

“The individuals that work the fire work 14-day shifts - two full weeks on -  and then they’re required to take two full days off before they can take another assignment,” Voos said.  “The Rocky Mountain Blue team that has been working our fire is done with their 14 days. So no matter what is happening with the fire, they would be leaving and transitioning to some other team or some other organization.”

Voos said based on the progress already made and the current weather forecast, fire managers feel confident taking on the fire from a Type 3 complexity level.

“Downgrading it to a Type 3 is still a lot of resources working on the fire and there will still be the same incident command system structure,” Voos said. “There will just be different people in those leadership positions and not quite as many resources as a Type 2.”

Voos said the overall approach of full suppression of the fire and continuing to work on containment will not change.

“The personnel, the staff in those positions is what is changing,” Voos said.

The Type 3 team are preparing for the management transition by job-shadowing the current team, to make sure the incoming team has enough time to develop knowledge and understanding of the fire.

As of this morning, the fire encompassed 2,490 acres and fire management reported 35 percent containment.

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