Lightning triggers fires in Northwest Montana

Area firefighters continued to chase smoke reports Thursday as a series of lightning triggered fires emerged around Northwest Montana.

Most significant were a cluster of fires in the North Fork Flathead drainage called the Hay Creek Complex. A Type 3 fire management team was assigned to the fires, along with four helicopters as well as retardant tankers that were dispatched from Ronan.

The complex includes the seven acre Akinkoka Fire, the Hay Creewk One Fire at 3 to 4 acres and Hay Creek Two at less than an acre. 

Pilots detected a couple of other fires along the Whitefish Range later Thursday afternoon.

The Mathias Fire was burning in heavy timber and estimated to be 1.5 acres just northeast of the Stillwater State Forest and the Lazy Creek Fire

 was half an acre northwest of Whitefish Lake.

“Certainly with the hot weather over the last few days and the forecasts for a continuation of hot weather and the possibility of thunderstorms, that definitely signals the beginning of the fire season in Northwest Montana,” said Steve Frye, area manager for the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s Northwest Land Office.

“We have been responding to reported smokes and any actual fires very aggressively over the last few days and we’ll certainly continue with that,” Frye said.

On the Tally Lake Ranger District, firefighters mopped up a small fire north of Whitefish Lake. 

A one-acre fire was being allowed to burn on the Spotted Bear Wilderness for resource benefits.

In Glacier National Park, firefighters were sent to a fire that was estimated at less than an acre in heavy timber in the Bowman Creek and Quartz Ridge area.

The Flathead National Forest, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and Flathead County recently elevated the fire danger to “high” in the Flathead Valley area.