Lightning sparks pair of wildfires
The Daily Inter Lake
The Flathead National Forest has three wildfires on its hands, along with several prescribed fire projects.
Lightning that moved through the area earlier this week triggered the Ninko Creek Fire in the North Fork Flathead drainage and the Ashley Divide fire just west of Kalispell.
The Gabe Creek fire, meanwhile, has been burning in the Bob Marshall Wilderness since Aug. 6.
The Ninko Creek fire has burned about 35 acres in steep, forested terrain just north of Whale Creek, about 40 miles north of Columbia Falls.
Fire crews are managing it with a confine-and-contain strategy, securing the perimeter and allowing the interior to burn.
The Chief Mountain and Flathead hot shot crews are assigned to the fire, along with a helicopter providing water drops.
The Ashley Divide fire was detected Tuesday and has since burned less than an acre. It was expected to be contained by late Wednesday.
The Gabe Creek fire has burned about 1,700 acres on the southern end of the Bob Marshall Wilderness about 20 miles northeast of Seeley Lake. It is being allowed to burn for resource benefits.
The fire has prompted the closure of a section of the Gordon Creek Trail between Shirttail Park and Elk Creek.
Several prescribed burns are being managed across the forest.
The Lost Creek burn was ignited by helitorch on Sept. 16 and has covered about 1,000 acres on the Swan Range east of the town of Swan Lake. There is still active burning in the interior and on the edges. It is being monitored daily.
The Cat and Condon prescribed burns, located north and east of Condon, also remain active. The two fires have covered about 700 acres and are being monitored daily.
Fire danger across the Flathead Forest is at moderate, but the fire danger is considered higher in lower-elevation forested areas.
Near Arlee, the Saddle Mountain Fire was discovered Wednesday morning about 3 miles west of town, said Rich Janssen, a fire information officer with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
It is yet unknown what caused the fire, which was about 75 acres and zero percent contained Wednesday afternoon,
"Hopefully they can make a pretty good dent on it tonight and we'll have an updated containment percentage [today]," Janssen said.
Three tribal 20-person crews and two bulldozers worked Wednesday to build fire line around the blaze. Also Wednesday, two helicopters and two airplanes dropped water and fire retardant on the flames.
East of Lincoln, fire crews were attacking a 109-acre fire in grass and lodgepole pine near the intersection of Copper Creek and Montana 200.
Roughly 70 personnel are working on the fire, with help from several bulldozers and two helicopters from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
"The fire is basically long and skinny and there appear to be several spot fires outside the main perimeter," fire information officer Cindy Super said Wednesday.
The Copper Creek Fire started around noon on Tuesday. The exact cause of the fire is unknown at this time.