Fires across state continue to gain strength
Fires straddling the border to the north and south of Heron, along with others burning near roads and trailheads to the east and west of Noxon, lead fire information officer John Head to a simple conclusion.
“We’re surrounded down here,” he said. “We’re in full battle mode.”
Much like other fire complexes in the Western United States, the Clark Fork Complex is growing and consolidating strength.
With eight major fires and five smaller ones being monitored, the Clark Fork Complex is hampering travel and threatening residences.
The Napoleon, Sawtooth and Government fires are burning in Montana. The Whitetail and Marten fires are solely in Idaho. The Scotchman Peak fire straddles the border at 2,616 acres.
“It’s an ongoing struggle down here,” Head said. “We saw a cold, dry front that turned out all right. It got cold and we got a little bit of rain but not enough.”
The Napoleon fire, which formed when the Napoleon I, Napoleon III, Hamilton and Star Gulch fires merged, is now at more than 2,217 acres.
While the Napoleon Fire has grabbed headlines, Head said the Sawtooth Fire, which is burning high mountain timber overlooking the Ross Creek Cedars scenic area south of Bull Lake, was the more concerning fire, and officials were assessing fire risk to property.
“We’re seeing fires in thick cedar forest and we are having to deal with hazard trees,” Head said of the Napoleon fire. “We have to keep folks down further, especially during night shifts, for their safety.”
He said evacuations on Montana 56 along the Bull River, from mile marker 2.7 to mile marker 14, were holding and didn’t see much movement from the fires to justify expanding those. Pre-evacuation notices are posted along Montana 56 to the junction with Montana 200 and along that stretch of highway.
The Clark Fork Complex is burning at 12,009 acres, with the Sawtooth at 1,198 and Government at 242 acres.
A public meeting in Noxon on Saturday night drew 80 people. The first firefighter injury associated with the fire was swelling from a bee sting which caused the firefighter to be pulled off the line.
The Thompson-Divide Complex remains fairly static, said spokesman Gregg DeNitto, although crews were battling to keep it that way and away from structures. DeNitto said 268 personnel are working the fires.
The massive Thompson Fire had grown to more than 16,000 acres, he said, but it was hard to tell the total for sure.
“There was some heat and it finished up some burning,” he said. “The crews that were up there were brought out. It’s hard to get a handle on it where it is burning.”
The Sheep Fire, which has prompted pre-evacuation notices from Essex, has burned 581 acres, DeNitto said. It was around half a mile from U.S. 2 and a third of a mile from a train trestle in the park. Amtrak and BNSF trains were continuing to run as of Sunday evening.
It threatens more than 200 structures.
“We haven’t wrapped the trestle but we do have sprinklers on it,” he said. “There’s an avalanche snow shed nearby that has sprinklers on it as well.”
Crews are trying to contain the Sheep Fire by building a line on the northeast side of it, somewhere near McDonald Creek and Sheep Creek.
“There’s so much fuel in there, the question becomes where to put that line,” DeNitto said.
U.S. 2 is open with limited speeds and pilot cars.
The Granite Fire remains hard to get a grasp on in high, rocky terrain, but estimates place it at around 176 acres. Old logging roads above the fire might make a base of operations for firefighters. The Spruce Fire is burning three acres in the Great Bear Wilderness.
One of the bigger problems for the Thompson-Divide Complex, as with other fires in the west, is the weather.
“We’re seeing that inversion in the morning and we can’t get our helicopters up to see,” DeNitto said. “We’re going to see a continued warming and drying. It’s going to get a little bit breezy.”
The Northeast Kootenai Complex has topped 3,300 acres, the vast majority of which are in the Marston Fire, burning near Fortine.
Tom Rhode, fire spokesman, said an infrared flight the night before had confirmed the acreage of the Marston at 3,200 acres. The Dunn and Weigel fires were both corralled and have since been removed from the complex.
The 60-acre Sunday Creek fire is 90 percent contained.
“We’re mopping up there, but that looks really good,” Rhode said.
The Barnaby Fire is burning 40 acres in very high and lightly vegetated terrain in mountains four miles north of Eureka. Rhode said it was backing into an avalanche chute and the area of an old burn.
The Marston Fire is 5 percent contained, and light winds have assisted attempts to restrain it. The fire line near Deep Creek is where the containment lies. Warmer and drier weather are concerning for Rhode.
“It picked up again this afternoon,” he said. “It could start moving.”
Three helicopters, including two heavy Chinooks, are dumping water on the fire.
The Bear Creek Fires in the Flathead National Forest continue to grow quickly in the wilderness, and fire spokesman Al Koss said clear goals are in place in regards to these two large fires.
The bigger of the two is the Bear Creek Fire, which has grown to 19,595 acres.
“Today most crews were mopping up at the Meadow Creek Trailhead and the Gorge Creek Trailhead,” Koss said. “We are taking hazard trees out, mopping up hot spots and looking at structure protection.”
Crews have wrapped ramps, rails, bulletin boards, the Meadow Creek Gorge Bridge, the Black Bear Cabin, Spotted Bear Lookout and a hydro electric facility with fire-resistant material.
“With the lifting of the inversion maybe we can get a look at things from the air and see where to go next,” Koss said.
The Trail Creek Fire, which has engulfed several smaller fires, is at 9,500 acres.
“Crews are securing lines on the southwest heel of the fire,” Koss said. “Our goal is to keep this fire north of the Spotted Bear River Road.”
A flare-up on the south side burned several dozen acres before it was quashed, Koss said.
Reporter Ryan Murray can be reached at 758-4436 or rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.