Weather aids firefighting effort in Northwest Montana

Intermittent light rain this week has helped firefighters gain ground on a few wildfires burning in Northwest Montana.

The Hay Creek Fire west of Polebridge was estimated at 2,020 acres on Thursday morning. A short reprieve from hot and dry conditions allowed for some small burnout operations that will help hold Hay Creek Road.

Crews also were working on containment lines, cutting fuel breaks and soaking down duff with hose lines.

Fire managers hope to keep the fire north of the Hay Creek Road, said Lincoln Chute, Flathead County's fire service area manager.

The fire already has burned down to the road in some places. Fire managers want to ease the fire down to the road, which would give them a black line of control.

Much of the fire on Wednesday was ground fire, with the occasional tree torching. That allowed firefighters to do a lot of work, as the humidity was higher — about 40% — and the danger of a crown run was much lower.

The hope is to keep the blaze from spotting onto Moran Mountain, which is just south of Hay Creek. Moran's north slope is primarily spruce and subalpine fir and the ridgeline is dead whitebark pine — a tinderbox of fuels. Moran also has no roads on its north face, so containing it there would be almost impossible.

The fire is burning in very steep terrain, where the slopes range from 50 degrees to nearly vertical in some places. Firefighters can't safely do a direct attack on the blaze, so they've been cutting containment lines and shaded fuel breaks on its flanks.

A shaded fuel break is where crews use logging equipment to thin the trees, typically leaving fire-resistant species like Douglas fir and larch.

THERE IS plenty to be concerned about with the Hay Creek Fire. About 190 homes are in the potential path of the blaze to the north, where prevailing southwest winds could blow it. Additionally, each house has two to three outbuildings, Chute noted.

Evacuation warnings remain in place for all residences east and west of the North Fork Road from Home Ranch Bottoms north to and including Moose Creek Road and the community of Polebridge. Glacier National Park has an evacuation warning in place for the North Fork area as well.

Chute has been meeting with homeowners daily and working on refining the evacuation plan. A community meeting is planned for 6 p.m. Friday at Sondreson Hall up the North Fork.

There were 139 firefighters at the scene on Thursday. A Type 2 Incident Management Team will take over the fire on Sunday.

THE RAIN also helped slow the Burnt Peak Fire south of Troy on the Kootenai National Forest. It was estimated at 3,097 acres on Thursday. To the north, the South Yaak Fire was at 4,152 acres.

Mandatory evacuations remain in place for all residents on East Side Road and Kilbrennan Lake Road.

Those fires had not damaged any structures as of Thursday.

Also on Wednesday, a heavy air attack was ordered for the 11,700-acre Thorne Creek Fire northeast of Thompson Falls. A large air tanker, two single-engine tankers and three helicopters were utilized in the attack, while a hot-shot crew worked on a 200-acre spot fire.

An order is in place for Montana National Guard support for logistics and security in the area.

ANOTHER WILDFIRE in southeast Montana exploded in size Wednesday and was threatening numerous homes as it burns through grasslands and sagebrush around the Crow Indian Reservation near the Wyoming border, officials said Thursday.

No homes were lost when strong winds pushed the fire more than 15 miles south in a 24-hour period, Crow Tribe information officer Jack Old Horn.

The fire that started Tuesday in the Poverty Flats area outside the reservation has grown to at least 86 square miles, according to an official estimate released Thursday.

Old Horn said he was told it was even larger but that a precise size estimate was unavailable as crews concentrated on fighting the blaze.

Cooler temperature, some cloud cover and a little rain were helping as firefighters continued their work Thursday, Old Horn said.

In Broadwater County, the sheriff's office issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents near a fire that has burned more than 19 square miles in the Woods Creek area of the Big Belt Mountains east of Helena.

Evacuation orders remained in place for a fire east of southeast of Cascade that grew to more than 40 square miles.

A SHIFT in the weather beginning Sunday should help firefighters across western Montana.

According to the National Weather Service in Missoula, temperatures will lower slightly as monsoonal moisture moves into the area. Highs for next week are expected to be in the low to mid-80s.

Widespread precipitation is possible Monday into Tuesday, with a threat of flash flooding in some areas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.