Evacuation request issued

James Roache knew it was coming, and it did when a Flathead County Sheriff's Deputy showed up in the driveway of his Good Creek home Wednesday afternoon to give him an official 12-hour evacuation request.

The Brush Creek fire had breached containment lines on its northeast perimeter and was advancing into the upper Good Creek drainage, where there are about 30 residences.

"I think I might be the only one left up here," Roache said as he hosed down the grass around his house, pumping water from a nearby marsh. "I'm just soaking it down, getting ready for tonight."

Roache said he has been preparing his property for a fire for years, but he picked up the pace soon after the Brush Creek Fire started July 26.

"I'm confident because I've been clearing this out for a long time," he said. "You don't live in a pile of trees without getting burned out. You clear things out and you get things green."

A dark, swirling plume of smoke lifted from the leading edge of the fire on a distant ridge, which Roache has figured to be just more than five miles from his place.

The fire has advanced to the northeast mainly because of spot fires that started popping up beyond containment lines Tuesday afternoon. By Wednesday, the fire had grown along two fingers, crossing a point that triggered the 12-hour evacuation request at 1:45 p.m. The fire is just more than two miles from another point that will trigger a four-hour evacuation order for homes in Good Creek.

Flathead County Sheriff's Deputy Roger Schief was part of a team that went to 11 homes, posting the evacuation notices and talking to residents who were still around.

"Most of the people weren't there," Schief said. "One said he planned to stay to the bitter end, and the others said when it hits the four-hour notice, they will go."

From his property, Roache pointed a neighbor's green roof about a quarter-mile away. "If it gets to that, I'll be gone," said Roache, who already has his important belongings sorted, packed and ready to load.

Throughout the Good Creek drainage, structure protection engines - some from Flathead Valley volunteer fire departments and some from as far away as Arizona - were parked in front of scattered cabins and outbuildings. Water tenders and dozers lined sections of road.

The Brush Creek Fire's late afternoon size-up was 26,425 acres. "But it probably grew an additional 1,000 acres today," said Annaleasa Winter, a fire information officer based at the fire camp on Farm-to-Market Road.

Winter said that extreme fire behavior Tuesday forced firefighters off lines by Tuesday, and by late afternoon, aircraft pulled off the fire because of smoky conditions in difficult terrain for flying.

Fire bosses are particularly concerned about a forecast for dry thunderstorms with strong winds and low humidity moving into Northwest Montana this afternoon.

"It's going to be a big test," Winter said. "It's going to test the lines we have in place and the lines we are trying to build."

There are similar concerns on the Chippy Creek Fire, which continues to grind through heavy timber 12 miles north of Hot Springs.

The fire grew by several thousand acres on Tuesday and Wednesday, to a late afternoon estimate of 82,160 acres. It is the largest fire in the state.

Firefighting efforts have largely concentrated on burnout operations to curb the fire from moving toward a subdivision south of Hubbart Reservoir. Firefighters started working nightshifts on Tuesday, and that is likely to continue for the near future, said Bruce Prud'homme, information officer at the fire camp in Hot Springs.

"When a front is coming through, there's always an uncertainty of what can happen, especially in this country," Prud'homme said. "Winds are what drove this fire initially."

An information meeting for the public will be held today at 7 p.m. at the Hot Springs School.

Firefighters held their grip on the Skyland Fire south of Marias Pass on Wednesday, despite a shift from southwest winds to winds from the northeast.

The fire has covered 40,704 acres, with an increase of just a couple hundred acres since Tuesday, most of that burning involving pockets of trees within the fire perimeter.

The northeast winds "did push the fire in different directions, but it did stay within its perimeter," said Carolina Hooper, an information officer at the fire camp off Skyland Road.

The fire is considered 60 percent contained, and the number of people assigned to has declined recently, to 720 by Wednesday afternoon.

"It's still a big fire, but we're starting to lose resources to other fires in the region that are getting hot," Hooper said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com