Missoula News

Montana wildfire roundup

Montana Fires Heat Up, Evacuations Ordered on Sawmill Complex

By Courtney Lowery, 8-26-07

The Fisher Point fire flares up Saturday, Aug. 25. Photo by Bruce MacDonald, used courtesy of InciWeb.org

Updated 11:00 a.m. Hotter, drier weather and gusty winds hit fires in Western Montana Sunday afternoon, sending familiar smoke columns into the skies and forcing the evacuation of homes near the Fisher Point fire, burning about 20 miles southeast of Missoula.

The Fisher Point fire, part of the Sawmill Complex south of I-90 and the Rock Creek area, flared up Saturday on its east flank, prompting the Granite County Sheriff to call for mandatory evacuations in the upper Willow Creek area.

The entire complex, made up of four fires, is now 56,400-acres, up from 55,000 Saturday morning. It has—like all other fires in this part of the state—been quiet all week. Evacuations were lifted throughout the week and containment is up to 15 percent total.

Near Wisdom, a column of smoke visible from Highway 93 rose Saturday from the 19,500-acre Rat Creek fire, mostly from activity in the interior of the fire. Total, it grew just 351 acres Saturday.

“There’s a lot of smoke and plenty of fire, but we’re not seeing much actual growth in the perimeter of the Rat Creek Fire,” Incident Commander Mike Quesinberry said in a release Saturday afternoon.  “We expected the fire to kick up...it just happened a little bit sooner in the day than we thought it would.”

Fire managers lifted the North Fork Ranch evacuation order and returned the ranch to Stage 1 precautionary evacuation notice. Several other ranches and the Big Hole National Battlefield are also being monitored and are on pre-evacuation notice.

West of the Rat Creek fire, the Rombo fire west of Connor in the Bitterroot Valley also smoked up Saturday, sending two columns of smoke over the valley. There were no new evacuations there either. All mandatory evacuations around the Rombo fire were downgraded to notices earlier this week. The Rombo fire is now 20,697 acres. Crews are expecting higher humidities Sunday and limited fire activity.

Northwest of Missoula, the Black Cat fire near Evaro got active again as well Saturday afternoon, but crews held containment lines on all sides and the fire only grew by about 200 acres. Winds of up to 25 miles per hour hit the blaze, shooting at least forty spot fires to the fire’s north. Crews and air support worked the spot fires, and one crew stayed through the night on the lines to watch for more spot fires. A total of 17,412 gallons of water were dropped on the fire yesterday.

Burnouts were successful Friday and so far, the fire is at 11,715 acres and is up to 50 percent contained. As of Saturday morning, the one hour preparedness notice for residents in the lower Mill Creek area was lifted.  Residents on upper Mill Creek and those along Highway 93 will remain on notice until fire officials say it’s safe to lift the warning. Frenchtown pond was opened Saturday morning.

On the Jocko Lakes fire west of Seeley Lake, red-flag conditions are predicted again Sunday after gusts of up to 45 miles per hour hit the fire Saturday. All lines held through the wind Saturday, even the containment lines on the southeast side of the fire—the closest to the Placid Lake area. The fire is still mapped at 34,980 acres and 38 percent contained. There are 1,052 people working on the fire.

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