Missoula News

montana fire roundup

Montana’s Ahorn Fire Has Quiet Day

By Jessica Mayrer, 7-17-07

Updated 9:00 p.m. Favorable winds and a thick smoke inversion kept Montana’s biggest fire, the Ahorn Fire, 35 miles West of Augusta, relatively quiet Tuesday while initial attack crews on the western side of the state battled dozens of small new starts that popped up after several days of thunderstorms.

The Ahorn Fire grew just 170 acres Monday with most of the active burning confined to the northeast side of the fire, away from the Benchmark road. In some places, the winds blew the fire upslope and back onto itself.

Officials put the Benchmark area—to the east and south of the fire—on evacuation warning Tuesday (earlier reports said the area was being evacuated). The nearest structures, including summer lease cabins, bridges and ranches are about two miles from the fire.

Structure protection crews made their way into the area Tuesday to make plans for protecting buildings in the Benchmark area and the Gibson Reservoir area, to the fire’s east.

Because of steep terrain around the fire and explosive fire behavior, firefighters, 83 of them, are focusing on personal safety and structure protection, said Fire Information Officer Vickie Guthrie.

“It’s not a matter of putting a line around it, that’s not going to work,” Guthrie said.  “We’re looking at a long-term event. It’s going to be here for awhile.”

The fire has been extremely aggressive, spreading by thousands of acres, even under just moderate winds. “The fire is doing things some of these long-term firefighters haven’t seen,” said Fire Information Officer Jack de Golia.

One helicopter dropped buckets of water on hotspots toward the Benchmark area. Wednesday, one heavy helicopter is expected to arrive and work was underway Tuesday to build a mixing plant for retardant to be dropped on the blaze.

A helicopter went down Monday morning near the fire’s helispot, about three miles south of the Indian Point cabin. The pilot sustained only minor injuries. The Forest Service is beginning an investigation Tuesday into the crash.

Extreme fire conditions and the rash of new starts in Montana prompted Gov. Brian Schweitzer Monday to declare an emergency. The declaration “warrants an aggressive initial attack on all wildland fire starts in Montana,” Schweitzer wrote in the executive order, which will mobilize state resources and Montana’s National Guard.

The fire weather watch for Tuesday night and Wednesday is mildly promising—at least some moisture is possible after several days of heat in the 100s. Still, there are warnings of potential thunderstorm activity (read: nasty winds) coupled with high temperatures and dry conditions in the woods.  Crews will continue to fight the existing starts, and lookouts and air partol will monitor the Forest for any holdovers and additional new starts from the past days’ storms. 

In Western Montana, by Tuesday evening 13 new fires popped up in the Bitterroot—most of them sparked by Monday night’s storm.  All are less than one acre still and more initial attack crews came in Tuesday from Arizona and Alaska and set up temporary fire camp at the Darby School.

For more on the Bitterroot blazes go to http://63.196.254.151/WildWeb/WCMT-BRC.htm and click “recent incidents.”

In the southwest region of the state, the Pattengail Creek Fire, about 10 miles northeast of Wisdom, quieted with the help of 1/4 inch of rain Monday night. It’s holding still at 2,500 acres. Retardant planes and helicopters are battling the fire. Tuesday, officials were still expecting the Patengail Creek Fire to continue its run, potentially doubling in size.

Elsewhere in that region, initial attack crews were fighting two new lightning-sparked fires while others worked to get a handle on the existing, larger fires, including the McKnight Canyon fire, burning at 85 acres north of Lima along I-15. Two air tankers dropped retardant onto the fire and a heavy helicopter helped slow the fire. Meanwhile, a hand crew will arrive Wednesday to start mop up work. The Perry Canyon Fire, south of Whitehall was contained Tuesday at 35 acres.

News on other noteworthy fires across the state:

• The St. Regis Complex, in Western Montana’s Lolo National Forest includes seven fires sparked by a thunderstorm on July 13. Six of the fires are 5-15 acres in size; the seventh is approximately 60 acres in size, for a total of 90 acres. A crew of 200 has the St. Regis Complex 40 percent contained.
• The Harlan Gulch Fire, northeast of Darby in the Bitterroot Valley, has burned an estimated 35 acres, but has not grown much since Sunday.
• The Harrington Ridge Fire in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness has burned nearly 100 acres and is being managed as Wildland Fire Use fires, meaning it is being managed, not actively suppressed.
• The Fool Creek Fire, burning on the eastern edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, 35 miles West of Choteau is also being managed as a Wildland Fire Use Fire. The blaze is now 5,430-acres. (Click here for more information on Wildand Fire Use teams.)

In Northwestern Montana, fire officials have reported 13 new fire starts since July 11. Most are small blazes, the largest being a 17-acre fire burning east of Lake Mary Ronan. That fire, started by haying operations on private land was suppressed by Montana State Department of Natural Resources and Conservation personnel and equipment in cooperation with volunteer fire personnel from Polson, Chief Cliff and Rollins Fire Departments. 

A fire by Holland Lake on the Flathead National Forest, south of Condon, was controlled at approximately 1/10 of an acre. Two other fires were sparked by logging near Marion and and Smith Lake, but both were caught by initial attack crews.

Fire crews are also continuing to fight several lightning-sparked fires that popped up over the weekend, including a three-acre fire on Crane Mountain, east of Flathead Lake, two fires near Star Meadows, west of Whitefish and one near Swan Lake.

If you’re interested in tracking this season’s wildfires, InciWeb (www.inciweb.org) is updated regularly with new information from the fire camps of large fires in the nation. (It’s our favorite way to track.)

Locally, the Bitterroot Dispatch Center has a handy Web site with recent incidents. (http://63.196.254.151/WildWeb/WCMT-BRC.htm)

Courtney Lowery contributed to this report

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