Jocko Lakes Fire Morning Update: Sept. 5

By Jocko Lakes Fire Information, Guest Writer, 9-05-07

Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 8 a.m. MDT Daily Update

36,060 acres
95% contained
$27,506,023 costs
310 personnel

WHAT’S NEW & EVENTS: Incident Commander Mike Wiederhold (Type 3 team) assumed command of the fire at 0700 today, transitioning with the Pacific Northwest National Incident Management Team 2.  By the end of today approximately 140 personnel will be assigned to the incident.

A public meeting was held Tuesday evening at Seeley Lake Elementary School .  Over 70 local residents attended. The meeting included a fire update, questions and answers and an opportunity to meet the new incident commander. 

More information on a revised closure area (allowing limited areas of additional access) will be available soon. The current fire area closure will be in effect until that time.

The community expressed interest in a tour of the fire area.  It was announced that a tour will be scheduled for Sunday September 16th at 1pm.  Interested persons are to meet at the Valley Market parking lot for car pooling.  More information will be available about this tour as planning progresses.

A huge thanks to the community of Seeley Lake for your ongoing support during this incident. 

JOCKO LAKES FIRE STATUS: Yesterday, crews gridded and patrolled along the western perimeter.  An unlined portion of that perimeter will be checked with helicopter water bucket drops due to firefighter safety concerns.  Rehabilitation of interior dozer lines continued using two rehab groups.  Some residual heat remains in the interior portions of the fire. The heavier fuels will continue to smolder for some time but do not pose a threat to the containment lines.  The Temporary Flight Restriction over the fire area was released at midnight 9/4/2007.

Expected full containment of the fire is October 1, 2007.

FIRE FACTS: Started: August 3, 2007; Cause: Lightning; Location: 8 miles west of Seeley Lake; Resources: 5 hand crews, 2 helicopters, 13 engines, 4 dozers, 4 water tenders, 1 camp crew, and 178 overhead.

SAFETY CONCERNS: Steep terrain, snags, bears.

WEATHER: Upper level low pressure will begin moving out of southern Idaho early today which will keep cool and unsettled weather over the fire for Wednesday.  Outlook for later in the week is for a northwest flow which will bring a period of cool but mainly dry weather.

COOPERATING AGENCIES & PARTNERS:  Montana DNRC, The Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Lolo NF, Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, Seeley Lake Fire Department, Missoula Rural Fire, Missoula County, Montana Dept of Transportation, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Game Wardens.

Editor’s note: As part of our fire coverage, NewWest.Net is posting here the email updates and press releases we get directly from fire camps as we get them. These do not replace our ongoing full coverage of the fires at www.newwest.net/fire, but supplement the information you get throughout the day with the updates we get throughout the day. We aim to give you all the information we get and here it is in its “unfiltered” form. For full stories, check back often at www.newwest.net/fire and continue to look for these updates from fire camps in the link box on the right-hand side of the page.

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