montana wildfire roundup

Erratic Ahorn Fire Spreads Again Monday

By Jessica Mayrer, 7-23-07

Updated 10:00 p.m. Monday was another hot and dry day on Montana’s 8,792-acre Ahorn Fire, the fire camp reported Monday evening. The fire had an inversion over it until about 2:00 in the afternoon and when it lifted, the eastern section of the fire responded with erratic fire behavior including group torching and crowning. Earlier in the day the fire was active in its northwest corner, continuing to back into Ahorn Creek. The fire spread but the additional acreage has yet to be mapped. The fire, Montana’s largest, remains zero percent contained.

The Ahorn Fire, burning the Bob Marshall Wilderness and the Lewis and Clark National Forest, grew by nearly 1,500 acres Sunday. It was whipped up by westerly winds gusting to 25 mph and flame lengths stretched 200 feet in the air. Click here to view a map of the fire’s recent progression.

The fire spotted across the Sun River and then crossed into Big Head Creek Sunday, traveling approximately one mile east.  The blaze has now burned approximately three quarters of a mile out of the Bob Marshall Wilderness on the Lewis and Clark National Forest.

Sunday afternoon officials issued an evacuation order for all residents of Benchmark Trailhead to the Woodlake Campground.  Summer lease cabins, bridges and ranches are nearby.

Helicopters dropped 60,000 gallons of water on the blaze Sunday, before weather conditions and fire behavior made those efforts ineffective.

The Ahorn Fire, as well as others in the area, prompted forest officials Wednesday to close 447,000 acres of the Lewis and Clark National Forest. The forest closure applies to land in the Bob Marshall Wilderness east of the Continental Divide and other National Forest lands near Gibson Reservoir west and north of Augusta. 

Still, 423,000 acres are open. Most of the “front country,” meaning lands outside the wilderness, remains open, as does the Birch Creek area and the southeastern part of the Scapegoat Wilderness in the Rocky Mountain Ranger District. Closed areas include land west of the West Fork campground near Choteau as well as the Benchmark area west of Double Falls campground. For more information, call 406-791-7754.

There are currently 11 large fires (more than 90 acres) burning in Montana and numerous small fires popping up across the state. Here is a region-by-region breakdown of the fire activity in Montana.

Also, check in often to InciWeb, where the large fires are being updated from fire camp regularly. The large fires with InciWeb pages are linked in the roundup below. Click on the name of the fire for that fire’s page.

For a look at fire weather forecasts, click here and for a national breakdown of wildland fires, click here.

Stage II fire restrictions, meaning no campfires, smoking, daytime industrial operations and motor vehicle use off designated roads and trails, went into effect Monday in most of western and west-central Montana. Click here for more details.

Western Montana:

There were no new starts in the Bitterroot National Forest Monday, but the Forest still has 18 fires in some stage of suppression. The largest is the 100-acre Michael Fire on the Darby Ranger District. Personnel are completing mop-up operations there. 

In addition, there are 11 fires in the Frank Church – River of No Return,
Anaconda-Pintlar and Selway Bitterroot Wilderness Areas which are being
managed as wildland fire use (WFU) fires and carefully monitored by air
patrol. The biggest is the Harrington Ridge Fire at 200 acres.

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

Noteworthy Fires in Western Montana:

• Conger Creek Fire, Lolo National Forest, 20 miles North of Ovando along Highway 200. 350-360 acres, being managed and monitored, not actively suppressed. Still not showing any significant fire behavior. This is burning in on the wilderness boundary in steep rugged terrain and on its way toward the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
• Sawmill Gulch Fire, Lolo National Forest in Welcome Creek Wilderness along Rock Creek. 50 acres.
• 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 were 5-15 acres in size; the seventh, the Fisher Fire, was approximately 60 acres in size, for a total of 94 acres. The complex is 90 percent contained.

Southwestern Montana:

The Owl Fire is now estimated at 303 acres. It is burning in a mature lodgepole and spruce-fir forest in the backcountry, away from roads and developed areas, on the Wyoming-Montana border in the Yellowstone National Park.

Operations on the fire were suspended Monday afternoon because thunderstorms in the area created erratic winds and unpredictable fire behavior. At times a large smoke column from the Owl Fire was visible for several miles.

The Pattengail Creek Fire in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest 10 miles northeast of Wisdom is up to 3,712 acres. Monday evening it was 27 percent contained. A group of spot fires in the northeast corner of the fire heated up and made short crown runs to the north. The structure protection crews have been working to assess structures along the Highway 43 corridor, but no structures are considered threatened at this time and no evacuations have been ordered.

Central Montana:

Monday the Meriwether Fire in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness grew to 1,200 acres, the Helena Independent Record reports, and it prompted officials to close the entire area.

Other noteworthy fires:

• Little Wolf Creek Fire, 570 acres, 90 percent contained, 7 miles west of Wolf Creek. The evacuation order ended Sunday for the 70-some residences in the Wolf Creek area, the AP reports.
• Ahorn Fire, Lewis and Clark National Forest, 35 miles West of Augusta, near Benchmark. 8,792 acres. 0 percent contained. 65 summer cabins, dude ranches and bridges threatened.
• Rugby Fire, 210 acres, zero percent contained, Lewis and Clark National Forest 12 miles west of Neihart. Structures are threatened and trails and roads in the area are closed.
• Novak Fire, 617 acres, zero percent contained. This fire is 10 miles southwest of Cascade, burning in timber, brush, and grass. Active fire behavior was observed and structures are threatened.
• Fool Creek Wildland Fire Use Fire, Lewis and Clark National Forest, in Bob Marshall Wilderness. 6,214 acres. This fire is being managed by a Wildland Fire Use team, meaning it is being managed for resource benefit, not actively suppressed. (Click here for more information on Wildand Fire Use teams.)
• Middle Fork Fire, Lewis and Clark National Forest, Middle Fork Judith Wilderness Study Area, 20 miles southwest of Utica. 1,146 acres. This fire is also being managed as a Wildand Fire Use fire and is burning in a remote area. It was started on June 21 by a lightning strike.

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