Crews gain against fire near Plains

The Daily Inter Lake

With three straight days of weather that kept smoke close to the ground, containment of a 7,500-acre wildfire in the Plains area rose Saturday to 50 percent, according to fire information officer Wayne Johnson.

The Seepay 2 fire has been burning for nearly a week through trees, brush and grass on the Flathead Indian Reservation, causing tribal leaders to close off sections of tribal land just as hunting season got underway.

Nearly 650 firefighters have been assigned to the fire, Johnson said.

Several new small fires in the Kootenai National Forest were all caused by lightning strikes, according to forest dispatcher Barbara Edgmon.

"We now have seven federal fires and one state fire," she said. "They are scattered all over - none of them are in the same location - and the largest one is an acre. Lightning came through here Friday night and the wind kicked up a little this afternoon."

The fires have been covered by two 20-person crews, three air tankers, two helicopters, two fixed-wing planes, 10 smokejumpers and several three-person crews and engines from the Kootenai National Forest.

By Saturday evening Edgmon said that "things are looking really good. They're buttoning down nicely."