Biggest fire finally reined in

The Daily Inter Lake

After weeks of sporadic and occasionally rampant growth, the Chippy Creek Fire was expected to be fully contained late Monday night.

"That's the plan," fire information officer Warren Beilenberg said Monday. "The weather is cooperating."

The last big challenge came on Saturday for the sprawling, 99,090-acre fire that started 12 miles north of Hot Springs on July 31.

"We had a red-flag warning and winds at 45 mph," Beilenberg said. "But our lines held up through that."

Fire bosses were particularly concerned about containment lines holding up on the northern perimeter in the Redmond Creek drainage.

One of the big reasons the lines held, Beilenberg said, is that area was

heavily worked with water and retardant drops the day before the wind arrived.

As expected, the fire was highly active on Saturday, putting off a large smoke plume. But most of the burning occurred deep in the fire's interior, Beilenberg said.

The Chippy Creek Fire - the largest in Montana this year and the biggest in Northwest Montana since 1929 - has covered an area equal to about three-fourths the size of Flathead Lake.

Mop-up work on the fire is likely to continue for days and weeks. The fire command post was moved from Plains to Marion on Monday to be closer to the northern fire front.

On Sunday, fire managers announced 100 percent containment of the other major fire in the Flathead area, the 29,920-acre Brush Creek Fire southwest of Whitefish.

As a result, the Flathead County Sheriff's Office announced Monday that an evacuation notice for the Good Creek drainage had been lifted.