Be sure that campfire is cold

Careless campers keep fire crews busy

You can see where the people sat around the campfire.

Two logs face each other around a ring of fire-blackened rocks.

And then you can see where the forest fire started.

The campfire ring was in dense forest cover just 150 yards from the South Fork of the Flathead River.

This illegal campfire sparked a four-acre forest fire Aug. 7 near Jungle Creek on the Spotted Bear Ranger District, about four miles south of the Spotted Bear Ranger Station.

Nearby trees were blackened as the fire spread through the forest near the campfire.

The fire ran up a nearby hillside, then spread out and burned in a mosaic pattern through the underbrush, fire crew leader Bryan Nichols explained while monitoring the fire Sunday.

The dank smell of smoke remained in the woods.

Nichols and two crew members Isaac Hall and Nicole Anderson were keeping an eye on the fire in case of a flare-up.

Overhead, a helicopter carried slingloads to the Wigwam fire in the nearby Bob Marshall Wilderness. Surrounding the Jungle Creek fire was about 1,500 feet of fire hose that stretched down to the river, where easy water access helped extinguish the blaze.

Eighteen firefighters and a helicopter dropping buckets of water helped put a quick end to the fire, Nichols said.

He questioned why campers would build a fire in dense forest, let alone while Stage 1 fire restrictions are in effect. "Everyone thinks you can get an engine to them, but not on the Spotted Bear," Nichols said.

The campers tried to extinguish their campfire, Flathead National Forest information officer Denise Germann said, but not well enough.

"That's why it's so important that a fire is dead out and cold to the touch," Germann said. "There were actually embers under the rocks."

The people who started the campfire near Jungle Creek violated fire restrictions that have been in effect in Northwest Montana since July 31.

The fire restrictions are in effect for Flathead and Kootenai national forests, Glacier National Park, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation lands, and Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, and Sanders counties.

The restrictions allow campfires, stove fires and charcoal fires only at developed recreation sites, campgrounds or improved sites. Open fires contained in fire pans are allowed only below the high-water line on the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Flathead rivers.

In the Bob Marshall Wilderness, only completely contained wood stoves with a fire screen or spark arrester are allowed. Propane or liquid petroleum stoves are allowed in all areas.

If you smoke, there are restrictions in the national and state forests and Glacier National Park. Stage 1 restrictions dictate that you must smoke in a vehicle, in a building or in an area where at least three feet of flammable materials have been removed.

No charges have been filed against anyone involved in the Jungle Creek fire, Spotted Bear Ranger Deb Mucklow said.

"We believe it wasn't intentional, they just were not adequate in putting the fire out," she said.

In recent weeks, forest personnel and the public have reported putting out 15 to 20 campfires left burning on the Spotted Bear Ranger District, Mucklow said.

"It's nice to know everyone is watching out for each other and trying to make sure there are no campfires left burning," she said, adding that the public also is doing a good job of reporting others who have illegal campfires. "People are reporting people leaving campfires, which is really nice."

River rangers were on the South Fork of the Flathead on Sunday, talking to floaters and reminding them of the fire restrictions.

Forest workers also are seeing some creativity in what is a "designated" fire ring. One party on the Spotted Bear Ranger District brought its own piece of culvert and installed a fire ring.

"That is not an action we are supporting," Mucklow said. "The public can't install their own fire rings."

In addition to campfire safety, Mucklow reminds the public to use proper techniques in storing food in bear country. "We're seeing campers not doing that, and people are being cited," she said.

The touch test is the most critical step in determining if your fire is dead out, Mucklow said. If you can put your hand in the fire, it's dead out.

Elsewhere on the Flathead National Forest,

there have been reports of fires being started by huckleberry pickers who were smoking cigarettes, Germann said. For the most part, she said, people are abiding by the fire restrictions, but illegal campfires have been discovered in the user-heavy Hungry Horse Reservoir and other areas around the Flathead National Forest.

"We're still finding people having fires," she said. "We've found a lot of abandoned and illegal fires."

The restrictions are also in place in Glacier National Park. The campfire ban is in effect in the park's backcountry of the park and also in the frontcountry campgrounds at Quartz Creek and Cut Bank. Liquid petroleum and LPG stoves are allowed, although smoking is prohibited in Glacier Park's backcountry, including all areas beyond any park trailhead. Campfires are permitted in designated campgrounds of the park.

"We haven't had any major issues on it," Glacier National Park chief ranger Mark Foust said. "People are complying well."

Although Northwest Montana has received some light rain and is experiencing cooler nights, Germann said she anticipates the Stage 1 fire restrictions will remain into the immediate future on the Flathead National Forest.

If conditions improve, the park restrictions also could be lifted. "We're constantly evaluating it as fuel moistures change," Foust said.

Things are worse down south. The Lolo National Forest in Missoula is under Stage 2 fire restrictions, which prohibit all campfires, and the city of Missoula has closed several popular hiking trails around Missoula to public access between 1 p.m. and 1 a.m.

So far this year, 1,755 wildland fires have burned 552,793 acres in Montana, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.