Weekend Fire Roundup

Clark’s Canyon Fire 80 Percent Contained; Emerald Hills Blaze Wrapped Up

By Courtney Lowery, 8-27-06

The Clark's Canyon Fire, burning east of Clark Canyon Reservoir five miles south of Dillon, held at 15,300 acres overnight and crews now have the blaze 80 percent contained, up from 60 percent Saturday. The personnel count is at 157 this morning. Crews will continue to rehabilitate fire roads today in areas where the fire is fully controlled. With no growth expected, the fire should be all wrapped up today or tomorrow.

Elsewhere, the Derby Mountain Fire south of Big Timber stayed put overnight too. The fire has covered 17,500 acres -- after it jumped from 12,000 acres Friday -- and it's 40 percent contained. A total of 265 people are fighting the fire. Stillwater Emergency and Disaster Services have placed 170 residences on fire alert in the areas north of Meyers Creek Road, Limestone Road, and Stillwater River Road. A public information meeting is planned for Sunday at the Big Timber Civic Center at 5 p.m.

The Emerald Hills Fire burning near a subdivision of the same name six miles east of Billings -- the one that blew up Tuesday burning at least two homes and one outbuilding -- has held at 3,836 acres and crews have the blaze 100 percent contained. Saturday management of the fire was transferred back to the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

The Gash Creek Fire six miles southeast of Victor is holding at 8,000 acres and 60 percent containment. At this point, with sections of the blaze burning into the wilderness and not being contained, only 59 people are on the fire. This one might stay at 60-70 percent containment until the season ends. It has cost $8.1 million to fight so far.

Meanwhile, the Ulm Peak Fire near the Idaho/Montana border has grown a bit to 1,150 acres and is four percent contained. Sunday 222 people are working the fire.

The Sun Dog Fire 20 miles north of Columbia Falls on the Flathead National Forest has covered 610 acres, all forest land, and is being fought today by 333 people Sunday. The nearest private land or buildings are eight miles from the fire perimeter.

There are also a whole slew of fires being managed in the Northern Rockies wilderness areas as Wildland Fire Use fires -- meaning they are usually naturally-caused fires that are just monitored and managed for the benefit of an ecosystem that needs fire to thrive. (They also cut down on resource costs.) Click here to see a spreadsheet of the upwards of 87 Wildland Fire Use fires in the Northern Rockies. Click here for details on the fires burning specifically in the Bitterroot National Forest's portions of the Selway-Bitterroot and Frank Church Wilderness areas.

Here's a roundup of other big fires in the region:

WESTERN MONTANA FIRES:

Sand Basin Fire (14 miles southwest of Phillipsburg)
• 700 acres
• 100% contained
• 235 personnel
• Demobilization scheduled to begin Sunday.

Holland Peak (Five miles east of Condon, Mont. on Flathead National Forest lands.)
• 318 acres
• 0% contained
• 26 personnel
• Steep, rugged terrain is making containment efforts difficult.

Red Eagle Fire (eastern edge of Glacier National Park)
• 32,230 acres
• 90% contained
• 11 personnel
• Transition to a Unified Command structure between the Blackfeet Tribe, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the National Park Service took place last week. No new reports are coming from fire camp as things wrap up there. It has cost $7.1 million to fight.

SOUTHERN MONTANA AND YELLOWSTONE FIRES:

Stinky Fire (11 miles southeast of the Lamar Ranger Station in the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park)
• 1,010 acres
• 0% contained
• 11 personnel (This fire is on monitor status and is not being actively contained.)
• The fire was active enough Thursday for fire officials to call in firefighters to keep the fire from moving eastward toward nearby National Fores lands.

Magpie Fire (7 miles east of Madison Junction, also in the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park)
• 2,047 acres
• No containment percentage (This fire is also on monitor status and is not being actively contained.)
• 3 personnel

Trisha Fire (20 miles southwest of Hardin, Mont.)
• 1,446 acres
• 100% contained
• 47 personnel

NORTHERN IDAHO FIRES:

Heaven's Gate Complex (10 miles west of Riggins, Idaho on the Nez Pearce National Forest)
• 7,310 acres
• 20% contained
• 264 personnel
• Four fires in this complex: Black Butte - 5,100 acres in the Gospel Hump wilderness; Green Acres - 2,100 acres in the Nez Perce and Hells Canyon National Recreation Area; Horse Heaven - 100 acres in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area; McCrae Creek - 10 acres in the Nez Perce National Forest.

Hughes 32 Complex (10 miles north of Nordman, Idaho, near the Canadian border)
• 946 acres
• 5% contained
• 85 personnel

Clear Creek (Six miles southeast of Kooskia, Idaho)
• 300 acres
• 100% contained

In Missoula, much of the city’s open space and conservation lands remains closed to afternoon and evening use due to extreme fire danger. Mount Jumbo and the North Hills, along with City and Forest Service lands on Mount Sentinel, including the Crazy Canyon recreation area and the “M” Trail, are off limits between 1 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Stage II fire restrictions remain in effect for much of Western Montana. Stage II restrictions mean absolutely no campfires, no smoking except inside a building or vehicle and no off-road or off-trail motorized use. They also mean no welding, using a torch or explosives or running a chainsaw or other equipment powered by an internal combustion engine for felling, bucking, skidding, road building or woodcutting between the hours of 1 p.m. to 1 a.m.

This roundup is updated every morning and every evening with new acreages on all the fires we can track down and new narratives on the most critical fires burning in the state. You can also check www.inciweb.org throughout the day for updates and each morning, the Northern Rockies Coordination Center's large incident situation report gives a good rundown of what happened the night before. And, by all means, if you have information of a fire burning near you, let us hear about it. Email info@newwest.net.

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