Money to burn

Forest fires give area businesses a financial boost

Wildland fires are blackening wide swaths of forest in this tinder-dry summer, putting at risk everything from homes to health to wildlife.

But just as fireweed blooms from a burned forest floor, so is the Flathead Valley's economy blooming from the fight to check this year's burning.

Millions of federal and state dollars are being poured into the fight, with much of that staying in the Flathead.

As of Thursday morning, on the Brush Creek Fire west of Whitefish, the U.S. Forest Service had poured an estimated $12.9 million into the fight since its first response on July 27.

To the south, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is managing the Chippy Creek Fire. Between that and the 78 other fires sparked, by Monday Kalispell Unit Fire Program Manager Dave Poukish guessed that his unit is spending $100,000 a week on equipment, personnel and other firefighting needs.

Where does all that money go?

Some of it pays for the regional and national firefighting crews called in to help on the fires. Fire-camp caterers and showers are national contracts, as well.

But a huge chunk of it stays in the local economy.

Flathead National Forest Superintendent Denise Germann slides a long list of local vendors across the table in the Kalispell headquarters. A buying team covering the Lolo, Bitterroot and Flathead national forests jointly contracts with the businesses.

The vendors are arranged in three columns - 51 for the Brush Creek fire, 60 on the Skyland fire near Marias Pass, 33 for initial attacks coordinated by the Kalispell Interagency Center. Several vendors work with all three.

They've supplied lodging, aircraft servicing, car rentals, chain saws, medical needs, tire repairs, lumber, computer jump drives, yurts for information tables, food, ice and drinks. And the list goes on, to the tune of $315,000 as of Monday.

Germann broke that down further: Kalispell-area fires used $200,000 in supplies, Whitefish fires used $62,000, Columbia Falls used $5,000. The other $48,000 went to fires in an extended area covering Hungry Horse, West Glacier, Essex, East Glacier and Browning.

But those are just a drop in the money bucket.

On the Brush Creek fire alone, heavy equipment such as dozers, water tenders and low-boys to haul them had cost an estimated $4 million by Monday.

It all is going to local operators.

Most of those operators know the drill by now. They signed up with the Forest Service office in the spring, showing proof of insurance and operators' licenses, listing the equipment they have available, and getting it all inspected by Forest Service personnel.

But with the severity of this fire season which turned up fuels on Brush Creek as low as 4 percent moisture content - a sheet of plywood is 8 percent - many equipment operators now on the Flathead Forest's list of potential equipment operators signed up in July.

Every morning, Germann said, she still sees more heavy equipment parked outside her office, lined up for inspection. As long as there is a need, they'll keep taking them, she said.

Direct personnel - the overhead folks such as the incident command team, Germann herself and other Forest Service workers - had used $702,000 by Monday.

Fire crews working on the Brush Creek Fire, although most are regional crews, had a payroll of $1.6 million.

Fire camp, the firefighters' home away from home, needs people to drive buses, bring in portable toilets, run daily operations, assemble sack lunches and more. Expenses for those indirect personnel on Brush Creek had tallied up to $2.3 million by Monday, Germann said.

And aviation on the fire had cost $2 million. Most are regional or national contracts, but some of those contracts are with local pilots and aviation services.

Poukish, with the DNRC, is focused on the Chippy Creek fire and initial attacks across state lands to keep other starts as small as possible.

A National Guard Blackhawk helicopter is in the Flathead working initial attacks this year. Another helicopter is in the Swan Unit, a rappel ship that lets firefighters rappel down to remote ground to start on a fire, then follows it with bucket drops.

Poukish said both are being paid for with "severity money," funding that the governor's office releases in severe fire years to help keep the big, expensive fires out of the area.

In addition, a Huey helicopter, one of six owned by the state, is being used in the Flathead. The Huey and a fixed-wing craft are designated for the Flathead every year, he said.

A light helicopter, one of five the DNRC has throughout the state, is on the Kalispell Unit this year to help size fires and carry out bucket drops.

Under normal operations, he said 30 to 40 people are posted in strategic locations for initial attacks, complete with the support crews they need for their 12-hour shifts and the finance crews to be sure they get paid.

But it's mainly local engines and local dozers being used in the initial attacks.

Poukish turns first to rural fire departments for their engines and crews, but the Forest Service contracts with private engine owners when needed.

Heavy equipment and plentiful air support have given initial attacks a success rate in the high-90-percent range this summer. Most starts have been snuffed out when they're just a tenth of an acre or less, with Germann noting only one that got up to 12 acres before it was controlled.

A unified attack strategy this summer has made all the difference. With out-of-state resources hard to find in this busy fire year across the West, locals are the key players.

"Pre-positioned" resources - local engine crews and others - are staged at crucial points so they can jump on a fire as soon as it's detected. It saves the time required to dispatch, drive to the scene, then begin firefighting efforts, and lets them get a handle on the fire as air support and other resources are called in as needed.

Last Sunday, for example, Germann said a 7 p.m. fire start along the Rails to Trails segment west of Kalispell got the full attention of rural, county and state firefighters. Combined with an airborne bucket drop, it meant the fire did not spread.

Poukish lines up dozers, skidgens and other equipment before fire season starts.

"But on a busy year like this," he said, "a lot of those resources that are set up to be available, that do it year in and year out, they get utilized immediately and we have to scramble to find someone."

Although it can be a scramble at times, he's found plenty of locals who step up to the task. Many take a pay cut when they put their regular jobs on hold in order to protect their own communities.

"The big thing about that is that these folks are local resources that know the area very well and have a committed buy-in," he said. "It's a real asset, a step in the right direction.

"A big difference from past years" because of this strategy, he said, "is we've taken the lines off the map." Many engines had been unsure in the past whether they should cross into another fire district for initial attacks.

"But now they go where they're needed," he said.

"I don't think anyone cares what color the engine is that puts their fire out."

By all counts, it's been an extreme fire year.

Poukish said an average summer brings 70 to 75 starts, and that 78 have been counted so far in the Kalispell Unit - but there's a good six weeks yet to go in the fire season.

Germann said the Flathead Forest, Glacier National Park and local DNRC lands logged 185 starts as of Tuesday, compared with 182 a year ago. But when charting three weeks ago, fire starts were double a normal year's starts.

Not only was it an earlier season, she said, but fire behavior was more extreme and more resources were used on initial attacks.

"We're seeing conditions we've never seen before," she said. As a result, "we have impacted local resources heavily."

Both said the mindset from locals who pitch in on the fight has transformed a tough situation into a manageable fight.

"They're willing to give a hand to put out fires not only in their own districts," Poukish said, "but in their neighbor's district."

"It doesn't get any better," Germann said, "than community involvement."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com