Rain may slow, but not drench big fire near Thompson Falls

Suppression crews battling the sprawling Copper King Fire saw little relief from the rain falling on Western Montana Thursday night and Friday morning, but they are cautiously optimistic headed into a stretch of cool weather this weekend.

Since it was first reported July 31 in the Lolo National Forest east of Thompson Falls, the fire has cost more than $20 million and burned through a 28,650-acre swath of timberland. Just 0.03 inches of rain had fallen in the area by Friday morning.

“We might get a wetting rain, a tenth of an inch, but all that’s going to do is stall it for a couple days. That’s not a season-ending event,” said Mike Cole, a fire information officer for the Type I Incident Management Team assigned to the wildfire.

The team’s Friday morning update reported 834 personnel still assigned to the fire-suppression effort, which is costing more than $1 million per day.

All evacuation and pre-evacuation orders remained in effect Friday morning. Cole said crews completed structure protection work Thursday and planned to begin demobilizing heavy equipment Friday.

The steep terrain has forced the team to rely more on bucket drops from helicopters, nine of which are still assigned to the fire.

Cole said crews are paying close attention to the recent fire activity pushing the front east into the Munson Creek drainage.

“If the weather cooperates here in the next few days, it looks like the plan is to burn that drainage out” to remove available fuels, he said. “If it gets onto the east side [of Munson Creek] and warms up, it can head up the slope on its own head of steam and it can start spotting to the next drainage over there.”

Elsewhere along the perimeter, firefighters will continue mop-up operations to expand containment lines, currently reported at 50 percent.

Cole said the team’s meteorologist believes the warmest weather of the year has past — temperatures in Thompson Falls hit 96 degrees in the past week — but a warm-up next week is likely, and any winds blowing into the region could complicate the firefighting effort.

For updates on the Copper King Fire, including evacuation information and scheduled community meetings, call 406-203-8203 or visit inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4912.