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Fire moves toward Benchmark

by The Daily Inter Lake
| July 31, 2012 9:14 PM

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<p>This map shows trail closures and the area covered by the Prisoner Lake Fire in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.</p>

Highly active burning continued Tuesday in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, where the Elbow Creek Fire Complex was estimated at 6,000 acres and moving eastward toward the Benchmark recreation corridor.

The complex is made up of three fires that merged on Monday. The largest is the Rapid Creek Fire that was burning through heavy, beetle-killed timber.

Seven trails in the area have been closed and one campground was closed to allow for safe helicopter operations.

The Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office issued an evacuation order for the Benchmark Road corridor as a cautionary measure should fire continue to move toward that road.

Lewis and Clark County Deputy Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Jim Hyatt told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the evacuation order for the Benchmark Road area is a precautionary measure. The Rapid Creek Fire is still a couple of miles away and must cross rocky terrain to threaten the area, but there is only one way in and out of the neighborhood.

Hyatt says there are 55 structures and 20 outbuildings in the evacuation zone. Most are non-primary residences.

Because of the fire and its possible spread, Lewis and Clark National Forest closed an area that includes the upper South Fork Sun River drainage south of Benchmark, the entire Straight Creek drainage, the Petty Ford and Petty Crown areas, and the area east of the Benchmark Road to the divide with Willow Creek and North Fork Ford Creek, including Cyanide Mountain and Red Creek.

In the next few days, hot dry weather and possible strong winds are predicted and could cause erratic fire behavior.

The complex continued to put off a large smoke column that was visible from the Flathead Valley.

Meanwhile, a fire that quickly grew to 3,024 acres after being detected on the wilderness portion of the Spotted Bear Ranger District continued to burn Tuesday.

The Prisoner Lake Fire is burning in steep terrain a couple miles northeast of the Forest Service’s Big Prairie administrative site above the South Fork Flathead River drainage.

Numerous rock barriers and other previous burns in the area, including the 2011 Hammer Creek Fire, are expected to help contain the fire, which is being managed for suppression.

The Prisoner Lake Fire, 25 miles east of Condon, has prompted several trail closures.

Another wilderness fire is burning 27 miles east of Seeley Lake. The Falls Point fire has covered 150 acres.

Outside the wilderness, the Condon Mountain Fire was estimated at 15 acres, burning in steep, rocky terrain on the Swan Mountain Range about 4 miles northeast of Condon.

Details on fires and closures are available at www.inciweb.org.