Rain gives firefighters a big boost
<p>A Chinook helicopter pulls 2,000 gallons of water from Murphy Lake on Monday afternoon, Aug. 31, to pour on the Marston Fire.</p>
<p>Gov. Steve Bullock listens to an update from Shawn Pearson, of the type 1 incident team managing the Northeast Kootenai Complex which includes the Marston, Barnaby, and Sunday fires on Monday, August 31, near Crystal Lake.</p>
<p>Smoke rises from the Marston fire on Monday afternoon, August 31, east of Fortine. The Marston fire covers 6,700 acres.</p>
<p>An Army Black Hawk helicopter flies over the Flathead Valley carrying Governor Steve Bullock to the Northeast Kootenai Complex for a briefing on the fires on Monday, August 31. </p>
Substantial rainfall — at least by parched Northwest Montana standards — has dampened area wildfire activity.
The changing weather and slowing fire activity have allowed evacuation orders to be lifted in the Essex, Noxon and Libby areas.
On the 6,810-acre Northeast Kootenai Complex, which is almost entirely composed of the 6,700-acre Marston Fire east of Fortine, opportunistic firefighters were leaping at the chance to corral the blaze.
Fire spokesman Tom Rhode said firefighters were drawing a line in the dirt while they could.
“It wasn’t very active yesterday,” he said Monday. “The west side has line on it, that’s the 15 percent containment, about nine miles. Crews are now working around the south and north sides of the fire. It comes creeping down to our lines, but we stop it. It hasn’t moved.”
The Northeast Kootenai Complex received a tenth of an inch of precipitation.
More rain — .67 inches — fell on the massive fires burning in the Spotted Bear Ranger District of the Flathead National Forest.
Ema Braunberger, Flathead National Forest fire information officer, said the effect of the “deluge” was a welcome one.
“We got a lot of rain and it really slowed things down here,” she said. “We’re in hazard tree removal and are creating that shaded fuel break along the road. It’s kind of nice, like a little park area.”
The Bear Creek Fire has covered 67,564 acres and the Trail Creek Fire 21,084.
The weather-slowed fires have allowed firefighters to make aggressive moves all over the region.
Sonja Hartmann, information officer for the Thompson-Divide Complex in and around Glacier National Park, said lower temperatures and precipitation were just what firefighters were waiting for.
“It’s happily a slow day, and that has allowed us to get boots on the ground,” she said. “Folks are getting in there while it’s safe and we expect low growth.”
The Thompson-Divide Complex consists of the 17,857-acres Thompson Fire, the 2,102-acre Sheep Fire and the 840-acre Granite Fire.
The Sheep Fire threatens the community of Essex and forced an evacuation last week, but shrewd tactics and a bit of luck allowed residents to return to their homes Monday under existing pre-evacuation notices.
U.S. 2 reopened with pilot cars escorting traffic between milepost 176.5 (the Schellinger gravel pit) and milepost 185 at Bear Creek. Escorted vehicles are not allowed to stop in this area.
BNSF freight trains and Amtrak passenger trains are running intermittently through the Middle Fork corridor. Call 511 or visit http://www.mdt.mt.gov/travinfo/alerts.shtml for current road status.
For more information on Amtrak, call (800) 872-7245.
Another evacuation will be lifted at 6 a.m. this morning, when the Sanders County Sheriff’s Office will allow residents of the Bull River Road/Montana 56 to return to their homes. They had been evacuated in the face of the looming Napoleon Fire in the Clark Fork Complex.
Fire Information Officer Bob MacGregor said rain was allowing for active firefighting movements.
“We did have a great rainstorm. It really put a damper on fire activity,” he said. “We are putting a direct line on the east and west of the Whitetail Fire [in Idaho]. But I think we are going to have to move resources to higher-priority fires. We’ve had the luxury of a hotshot crew and we’re going to be losing that.”
The current concern for the Clark Fork Complex is the Sawtooth Fire, approaching the historic Ross Creek Cedars area from the southwest. More than 12,000 feet of hose is present at the cedars, ready to provide sprinkler coverage if need be.
As for the nearby Goat Rock Complex, Fire Information Officer Carmen Thomason said the rain actually stood in the way of efforts to map the complex, which includes the 3,758-acre Klatawa Fire threatening areas south of Libby.
“We had meant to do helicopter mapping yesterday,” she said. “But clouds and rain made that not a possibility.”
Additional fire engines have arrived at the Goat Rock Complex from Arizona and New Mexico.
“Optimism is the word we are using around here,” Thomason said. “That little shot of moisture was just what we needed. The mood has changed around here.”
The Granite Creek area had been evacuated as the Klatawa Fire burned out of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, but that evacuation order has been rescinded.
Thomason’s sentiment was shared by MacGregor of the Clark Fork Complex.
“Things have turned around 180 degrees from Saturday,” he said.
While fires continue to burn, Thomason spoke for many officials trying to quash the flames.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” she said. “While we are optimistic, we know that when things heat up, fires will become active again and we’ve got to be prepared for that. We’re refining and honing our strategy.”
More good weather news is in the forecast: The National Weather Service Missoula station said more cool weather and precipitation are heading to Northwest Montana this week.
“We’re expecting a large weather system as early as Wednesday,” said Stefanie Henry, Weather Service meteorologist. “But we’ll see the most impact later in the week. There is still a little model uncertainty but we will see cooler temperatures and possibly snow as low as 6,000 feet. We could even see frost on Friday or Saturday morning depending on how much moisture we get.”
Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.