B.C. fires cloud Flathead skies

The Daily Inter Lake

A smoky haze drifted across Northwest Montana Sunday and Monday, and there is nothing local about it.

While there has been minimal wildfire activity in Montana and Idaho, that's not the case in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.

Fires in British Columbia, in particular, are the source of the smoke clouding the skylines in the Flathead Valley.

British Columbia officials report there are more than 700 active fires in the province. Those fires have generated smoke that drifted southeast into Montana, prompting the state Department of Environmental Quality to put out an advisory Monday.

The state agency said the smoke would produce conditions "unhealthy for sensitive groups' in Libby, the Flathead Valley and as far east as Helena.

People with respiratory or heart disease, the elderly and children should limit prolonged exertion, according to the state DEQ. For more information, go to www.deq.mt.gov/FireUpdates/index.asp

The National Weather Service in Missoula said the smoke might linger in the Flathead Valley through today, and an incoming weather system Wednesday might be strong enough to push the smoke out of Northwest Montana.

Some of the heaviest fire activity is near Kelowna, British Columbia, more than 270 miles northeast of Kalispell. The largest fire near Kelowna covered more than 17,000 acres, according to Canadian news reports, and there were 102 new fires on Sunday alone in British Columbia.

Most of the fires were caused by lightning.

Meanwhile, the Forest Service and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation have been putting out scattered lightning starts in the Flathead area over the past couple of weeks, but none have grown to more than a fraction of an acre.

Denise Germann, public affairs officer for the Flathead National Forest, said initial attack firefighters have also been responding to fires caused by abandoned campfires.

She urges campers to use caution and make sure their fires are "dead out" before leaving.

The fire danger is "moderate" at higher elevations and "high" in lower elevations across Northwest Montana, and the fire danger could increase in the weeks to come.