great smoky mountains national park fire update

As of Tuesday morning May 29 a total of 48 firefighters were still working to suppress the Buck Shank Fire in the Abrams Creek area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Since Friday, May 25, the estimate of the acreage that has been burned has been increased from 250 acres on Friday to about 800 acres today - with most of the increase due to more exact mapping.
The fire still is burning entirely inside a perimeter of creeks and trails that firefighters are using to contain it. The fire is expected to gradually spread until it reaches those control lines, so it is eventually expected to cover an area of about 970 acres. Fire managers say that the fire will not be classified as "contained" until the fire has burned all the remaining leaf litter and other flammables up to the fire lines. They say that the fire is now approximately 65% contained and expect to reach full containment by June 9.
On Monday evening a Park air quality monitoring and weather station recorded a brief rain shower that dropped .17 inches of rain, but fire fighters say that was far too little to have any lasting impact on containing the fire.
Firefighters on the ground have been rehabilitating fire damage to water bars and footlogs along Little Bottoms Trail and are clearing away leaves and brush along Cooper Road Trail to prepare it to serves as a contingency control line. A helicopter is also available to do aerial surveillance and to drop waters as needed.
For the safety of visitors, Little Bottoms Trail is closed. The Hatcher Mountain Trail is closed entirely and Cooper Road Trail is closed from its junction with Cane Creek Trail to Little Bottoms Trail. The Abrams Falls Trail is closed from BELOW the falls down to Little Bottoms Trail, but Park managers emphasize that the very heavily-used section of Abrams Creek Trail from its trailhead in Cades Cove down to Abrams Falls is still open and safe for hikers.