Wilderness fires continue to grow
By JIM MANN
The Daily Inter Lake
It has been overshadowed by other, larger fires for weeks, but the Corporal Fire is just one of several fires that have been steadily growing in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.
The lightning-caused Corporal Fire was first spotted on Aug. 12 from the Spotted Bear Lookout, which is now wrapped in fire-resistant material as the fire has grown to 4,454 acres, presenting a threat to that structure and others.
Unlike some wilderness fires that are allowed to burn for "fire use" purposes, the Corporal Fire was considered a suppression fire from the start, said Allen Chrisman, fire management officer on the Flathead National Forest.
"We had 18 people up there and a lot of helicopter support from the get-go," Chrisman said.
The initial attack effort was abandoned after the fire reached 17 acres. "We realized that we weren't able to catch it," Chrisman said.
At that point, a confinement strategy was adopted, Chrisman said, where "you identify where want to keep it out of," as opposed to a full "perimeter control" approach used on fires outside wilderness areas.
The confinement strategy takes into account the inaccessibility of the wilderness, where there's plenty of rugged terrain and no roads, along with limited resources that are more likely to be deployed on fires outside the wilderness.
The main goal on the Corporal Fire has been to keep it from spreading west into the South Fork Flathead River drainage, where it would be poised for a northward run toward the Spotted Bear Ranger Station and other structures that surround it.
The fire is currently about five miles southeast of the ranger station.
The 15,640-acre Railley Mountain Fire and the 19,020-acre Conger Fire are two other suppression fires that have steadily grown in the southwestern corner of the wilderness complex. Both have potential for significant growth, depending on weather trends in the next few weeks, Chrisman said.
A recent change in the weather has brought cloud cover, along with lower temperatures and higher humidity levels that have slowed fire activity.
However, weather fronts have been mostly dry, with occasional high winds that have driven fire growth.
Over the weekend, the Corporal Fire and other wilderness fires made wind-driven runs.
While the suppression fires have been troublesome in the wilderness, the only "fire use" fires that have been burning as expected, Chrisman said.
The 1,130-acre Turtlehead Fire and the 337-acre Ampitheatre Fire "have been behaving nicely and we don't expect big growth out of them," he said.
Fires in the wilderness have collectively burned more than 149,000 acres and they have become fairly costly, even though they attract far fewer resources than project fires outside the wilderness.
The combined cost of wilderness fires is more than $20 million so far.
The most expensive have been the 49,130-acre Ahorn Fire at $13.4 million and the 58,580-acre Fool Creek Fire at $5.1 million. Since they were first detected in early July, the two fires have made periodic eastward runs, crossing the wilderness boundary and threatening homes and other structures on the East Front of the Rocky Mountains.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com