Fire crews attacking new starts

Firefighters have been scrambling to fires over the last couple of days, most of them triggered by thunderstorms that moved over the Flathead area Tuesday.

All of the fires were quickly put down, said Rick Connell, fire management officer for the Flathead National Forest.

“We had a lot of lightning but we only picked up 15 total fires so far,” said Connell, adding that holdover lightning strikes could emerge as fires in days to come.

“We’re putting up fixed-wing aircraft and looking for smokes and we’ll do that for the next few days until we quit finding them,” he said.

Most of the fires were handled by initial attack firefighters on the ground. But a half-acre fire that emerged east of Lake Mary Ronan at around noon Wednesday attracted a single-engine air tanker, a helicopter and three engines with crews.

The 15 fires have been spread mostly over lands patrolled by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, but a few were on Flathead Forest lands, including one that was put out by personnel that have been working on the Condon Mountain Fire about four miles northeast of Condon.

There were light and scattered rains around the Flathead on Tuesday, but hardly any fell on the 1,700-acre Condon Mountain Fire, which continues to burn within indirect containment lines.

Meanwhile, the 9,800-acre West Garceau Fire west of Polson is now considered 65 percent contained with crews continuing to hold and improve fire lines.

Other parts of Montana have been much harder hit by fires this year — and forest managers say the state’s fire season is expected to last longer than usual.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer was told at a Wednesday fire briefing that long-term forecasts call for fire conditions through the end of September.

The Northern Rockies Coordination Center put the total cost of fighting large wildfires in Montana, including costs to federal and state agencies, at $64 million so far this season.

The state’s cost is about $25 million to fight fires that have burned about 1,100 square miles.

State officials say nearly 1,400 fires have destroyed 372 structures this season. About half the fires were caused by people.

Schweitzer says the state has already burned through cash reserves set aside for such natural disasters, but that plenty of money is available from surplus general funds.