Fire-spitting helicopters were dispatched to Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday to help protect the Old Faithful geyser area from a 6,000-acre blaze, part of the worst series of fires in the park in nearly a century. Almost 1,000 firefighters were summoned to the scene, but officials had not decided as of early Tuesday evening whether to actively fight the fire, one of a dozen burning in the oldest national park. The fires have charred more than 70,000 acres in the 2.2 million-acre park, the nation's oldest national park. One fire, the 47,000-acre blaze dubbed ``Clover Mist'' on the eastern edge of Yellowstone, made two jumps into Shoshone National Forest. Interior Secretary Donald Hodel made plans to tour Yellowstone by helicopter Wednesday to get a first-hand view of the devastation. Winds were pushing the Old Faithful fire away from the geyser complex, which includes an historic inn and several other buildings. But fire managers decided as a safeguard to call in ``heli-torches'' that can spew a napalm-like substance. If officials decide to use them, the copters will be used to start ``backfires'' to burn away brush in the main fire's path. The fire, which started Friday in the adjacent Targhee National Forest in Idaho, burned roughly 10 miles west of Old Faithful, and about 10-15 miles south of Madison Junction, said Fire Information Officer Bruce Fox. Later estimated differed on how far the fire was from Old Faithful, ranging from about 6 miles to 10 miles, but officials agreed that it was still burning toward the northeast, a direction would bypass the geyser. Spokesmen stressed that their figures on total acreage burned also were estimates. Officials said they didn't believe firefighters could ever douse the flames. ``These fires are going to burn until the weather puts them out,'' said Fox. A fire camp was established 13 miles north of Old Faithful in an open field, where resting firefighters relaxed in tents or simply stretched out on the ground. Other firefighters were at Old Faithful picking the area clean of downed trees, piles of firewood, twigs and pine needles that could feed embers carried by winds to the area. They also cleared the ground around a microwave tower that provides Old Faithful's communications with the rest of the park. Plans were made to burn a five-mile-long meadow, possibly on Wednesday, to clear out the dry vegetation and thus slow the fire if it turned toward Old Faithful, said Fox. ``With the worst-case weather scenario (strong winds out of the west), that probably wouldn't hold it. But it would definitely slow it down,'' he said. ``If all else fails, we'll backfire Old Faithful.'' Eighty firefighters were sent to an area near Frost Lake, located 10 miles north of Yellowstone's East Entrance, where flames had blackened about 200 acres since the fire moved into the national forest during the weekend, said forest spokesman Dave Damron. Another 60 were 10 miles farther to the north where the ``Canoe Lake'' fire had burned about 50 acres, he said. Unusually hot and dry conditions this summer have left Yellowstone and the rest of northwestern Wyoming tinder-box dry. ``The last time they had this much fire in the park was in the late 1800s,'' said Incident Commander Larry Caplinger. ``The fuel conditions, and the weather conditions, lend themselves to extreme fire potential. ``The outlook is we probably got at least three long months of fire season ahead of us in this part of the country,'' he added. ``We could be in for the beginning of the siege of '88.'' Although no closures of services or accommodations at Old Faithful had been ordered, park visitors were advised such closures may eventually be necessary. Fires have forced the closure of Grant Village and the road from there south to the South Entrance. At Grant Village, about 500 firefighters were continuing to fight flames from the the Shoshone and Red fires that had spread to 20,200 acres. The village includes a small hotel and some trailers and apartments for park service personnel. Hot embers shooting ahead of the fires Monday night burned through power lines at the area of the village and set one building on fire. Officials said the structure wasn't seriously damaged. Flames also had burned around the Lewis Lake campground, torching trees along the perimeter of the area, according to fire officials. In the Teton Wilderness that borders Yellowstone on the south, some 690 firefighters worked Tuesday along the northern edge of the 24,400-acre Mink Creek fire. While good progress was made during the day on the southern end of the fire, thunderstorms packing some erratic winds were creating a problem on the northern end, which had burned about 1,200 acres into Yellowstone's remote backcountry.
