Cool, wet weather helps fire crews

A week of wet weather has given reason for fire restrictions across the region to be lifted or lessened.

Among these include a lifting of pre-evacuation orders around south Libby as concerns about the Klatawa fire has been tempered by the rain.

The cooler weather and contingency lines prompted the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office to cancel all pre-evacuation orders related to the Klatawa Fire in the Goat Rock Complex at 10 a.m. on Monday.

This impacts residents who live on Lower Granite Lake Road, Granite Creek Road, Willow Road, Prospect Creek Road, Winchester Drive and Granite Lake Road. This includes homes and businesses west of U.S. 2, starting from Pearl Street near Akins South Gas Station and extending south to and including Bear Creek Road.

With the Bear Creek and Trail Creek fires in the Flathead National Forest, out-of-area crews are transitioning management to Flathead crews while structure protection on some structures and bridges is being taken down. The Schafer Meadows protection will remain up until deemed unnecessary.

For the Northeast Kootenai Complex, the area closure around the Grave Creek and 10 Lakes area has been removed in light of lessened threat from the Barnaby Fire.

The North Fork area closure due to the Marston Fire remains in place.

A community meeting led by the New Mexico incident management team regarding the Northeast Kootenai Complex will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, at the Trego Civic Center. The meeting will update the communities nearest the Marston Fire about the complex.

Several of the Clark Fork Complex fires will transfer to the Goat Rock team, placing most of Lincoln and Sanders counties’ fires under one team. The Clark Fork Complex is 75 percent contained.

The Thompson-Divide Complex is being transitioned to a local type-four team and is 72 percent contained with no structures lost.

The Reynolds Creek Fire, which kicked off the 2015 fire season in late July, is now 96 percent contained.

Reporter Ryan Murray can be reached at 758-4436 or rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.