Burnout effort aims to rein in Swan fire

Two large wildfires in the Bob Marshall Wilderness settled down somewhat Friday, while a burnout operation was initiated on a fire just outside the wilderness seven miles southeast of Swan Lake.

“We’re burning out as we speak and it sounds like it’s going pretty well,” Pat Cross, a fire information officer on the South Fork Lost Creek Fire, said Friday afternoon.

A helicopter rigged with a flame-spitting torch was used to burn steep terrain on the fire’s southeast perimeter Friday afternoon. The goal is for the burn to move uphill and essentially create a break in front of an active part of the fire.

The burnout operation sent up a sizable plume of smoke above the Swan Mountain Range visible from the Flathead Valley.

The fire was sized at 850 acres still and is still considered just 10 percent contained.

“We should be up around 1,000 acres by tomorrow,” Cross said Friday. “We expect a big jump in the percentage of containment after this burnout operation.”

There are 188 people working on the fire along with five helicopters, some of which have been diverted to fires in the wilderness. A heavy helicopter was on standby to assist in containing the burnout if necessary, Cross said.

In the wilderness, the Big Salmon Lake Fire located east of Holland Pass was sized up at 2,300 acres and the Hammer Creek Fire north of the Big Prairie Ranger Station was estimated at 1,100 acres.

“There’s a not a lot of new activity, no significant growth” on either fire, said Spotted Bear District Ranger Deb Mucklow.

There are about 50 people working on the fires, including firefighters who have been concentrating on structure protection at the Big Prairie Ranger Station and at the Salmon Forks Administrative Site.

Over the last couple days on the Hammer Creek Fire, firefighters have been working to stop spot fires on the west side of the South Fork Flathead River to prevent a closure of the main trail on that side of the river.

“We had a three-acre spot fire last night so they were working on that today and it’s doing fine,” Mucklow said.

Several trails have been closed in the Big Salmon Lake valley, and there have been trail closures in the area of the Hammer Creek Fire.

The South Fork Lost Creek Fire has prompted the closure of two roads and five trails.

Mucklow urges forest users who plan to be in the vicinity of the fires to contact the Flathead National Forest for closure information.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.