Sun Dog 'dodged a bullet'

The Daily Inter Lake

Firefighters across Northwest Montana were awaiting the arrival of high winds by late evening Tuesday. But the winds never came.

"It looks like we dodged a bullet with this fire. Most of the wind went south," said Tom Heintz, incident commander on the Sun Dog Fire. "All the hazards are still there, there's still lots of work to be done."

The National Weather Service had posted a red-flag warning for high winds across western Montana for Tuesday. Winds were expected to pick up in the Flathead, but they didn't.

To head off any wind-driven growth on the Sun Dog Fire, heavy equipment was used to cut a 70-foot wide fire break along several miles of existing forest roads to the south, east and north of the existing fire perimeter. The line was "painted orange" with fire retardant dropped Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, there was plenty of smoke but no substantial growth on two fires burning on the east and west slopes of Holland Peak.

The 318-acre Holland Peak Fire had active burning within its perimeter on the western front of the Swan Mountain range, about five miles east of Condon. The 420-acre Tango Point Fire is burning on the eastern slopes of the same mountain, within the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Spotted Bear District Ranger Deb Mucklow said there has not been significant growth on that fire for several days.

The largest fire in Northwest Montana continues to be the 1,150-acre Ulm Peak Fire, about 12 miles southwest of Noxon.