The Little Bald Mountain, which was ignited by lightning two weeks ago, is still burning in South Willow Canyon, but is 95 percent contained.

The fire, which was originally thought to have burned 558 acres, has now been accurately mapped at 502 acres.

“When we mapped that 558, it was from a helicopter with a GPS unit. This last time the 502 was done by hand on the ground where somebody walked around and got the acreage,” said Kathy Jo Pollock, fire information officer with the U.S. Forest Service.

Resources currently on the fire include one heavy engine crew of five or six people, Pollock said. This crew will patrol the area until Sunday. Their work will include extinguishing any hotspots near the fire line.

“They will patrol along the road and if they see any hotspots they can reach they’ll go ahead and extinguish them,” Pollock said. “They’ll be patrolling, making sure that if anything’s coming down toward the road on the north-facing slope they’ll be able to put that out.”

Once the engine crew leaves, the fire will be monitored from the air at least once a week until it’s out.

“It’s burning under some timber and it’s got some dead pine needles and leaves — and it’s years and years of that buildup,” said Pollock. “So once the fire gets in there it creeps around and smolders.”

She added the fire may go out by itself depending on if there are cooler temperatures and the humidity goes up.

“It’ll die out a lot sooner if we get a little moisture on it,” she said, but added it doesn’t look like the area is due for any forecasted precipitation.

Box Elder, North Willow and South Willow canyons are now open after being closed by the fire. In addition, the Upper and Lower Narrows campgrounds and the Loop campground are also open.

The Cottonwood, Intake and Boy Scout campgrounds will continue to stay closed because of the possibility of mudslides and flash flooding.

“Above it [these campgrounds] where the fire did come through on the north-facing slope on the south side of South Willow Canyon, it did take out quite a bit of vegetation, which holds the soil in. So if we get a large amount of rain in a short time, we could have mudslides and flash flooding. For the safety of everybody, we have those campgrounds closed.”

The Stansbury Front Trail can be accessed through the Boy Scout campground. However, the public will have to park at Medina Flats.

To protect the ranger station up South Willow Canyon from the fire, Pollock said the structure was wrapped in a material that looks like tin foil. The material is woven silica, which is laminated to aluminum foil. The foil forms an outer layer that reflects heat. The inner layer is made of fiberglass, which slows heat absorption.

Pollock said structures such as guard stations, picnic tables and bathrooms at campgrounds can be wrapped in this material if a fire is moving in the direction of the structures.

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com