Officials monitoring wildfires across region

Wildfires around Northwest Montana continue to add smoke to area skies as blazes continue to burn from the Canadian border to the Mission Valley.

The Quartz Fire in Glacier National Park is currently estimated to be burning 150 acres west of the Continental Divide in the upper Quartz Creek drainage below Vulture Peak. The lightning-caused fire was reported by Cyclone Lookout at 10:19 a.m., Aug. 14 and had grown to 8 acres by the next morning.

The park has announced the closure of Quartz Lake and Lower Quartz Lake wilderness campgrounds and the Quartz Lake Loop Trail owing to the fire. The Quartz Creek Trail off the Inside North Fork Road is also closed.

The park has ordered additional resources, including four firefighters who began historic structure protection Thursday for the Quartz Lake Patrol Cabin at the foot of Quartz Lake. Historic structure protection includes laying hoses with pumps and sprinklers as well wrapping with fire resistant material. Crews are also using a helicopter to insert supplies and fly reconnaissance.

With the fire burning in steep terrain with subalpine fir and brush, current fire behavior includes single tree torching and slow spread through underbrush.

At this time, the fire’s location at a high elevation on the west side of the Continental Divide poses little risk to resources and infrastructure. Glacier National Park fire managers will monitor activity of the Quartz Fire from the ground and air. They will make decisions based on likely fire spread and impact to resources with a goal of confining the fire to the west side of the Continental Divide and the upper Quartz drainage. The growth of the fire to the east is being slowed by natural barriers. Officials do not believe this area warrants any action at this time.

“We are not actively suppressing the fire at this time,” park spokeswoman Gina Kerzman said. “We are going to keep an eye on it and watch and see what happens as it is in some pretty steep terrain. We are still assessing the situation and there may be more closures to come.”

Temperatures are expected to stay in the high 80s to low 90s through the weekend though there is a slight chance of rain early next week, according to the National Weather Service.

The Garceau Fire is active 10 miles west of Polson, had burned 3,200 acres as of Thursday afternoon and is zero percent contained.

A local Type 3 team with 245 personnel is currently battling the blaze that was sparked by an electric fence.

The fire has split into two fronts, with one side moving east and the other west. The fire made a push to the west Wednesday evening and crews and resources will look to construct control lines on the west side of western fire and on the north side of the eastern fire.

Single Engine Air Tankers, and Helicopters were used on hot spots Thursday while crews, dozers and skidgines were used to complete control lines.

There are no evacuations and there are no structures threatened at this time, but Irvine Flats and Garcon Gulch Roads going up to Windy Gap are closed to through traffic.

The Spotted Bear District of the Bob Marshall Wilderness is currently monitoring three lightning-caused blazes, including the Cannon, Dean Creek and Highrock fires.

The Cannon Fire was detected on Aug. 7 and is primarily burning in the Cannon Creek drainage and is burning on the south facing side of the slope.

The fire has spotted over the ridge into the sub drainage that separates Cannon and Gorge Creeks.

The Spotted Bear Lookout and Jumbo Lookout will continue to monitor fire activity, with assistance from aerial reconnaissance resources.

For public and firefighter safety, portions of NFS Trails 107, 115, 218, 226, 493 and 693 are closed.

The Dean Creek Fire was detected on Aug. 14 and is burning in the Dean Creek drainage.

The fire is burning on the lower third of the southeasterly facing slope approximately three miles up the drainage from the junction with Spotted Bear River.

The Spotted Bear Ranger District Wildland Fire Module has been inserted into the Pentagon Cabin Administrative Site and completed structure protection operations there Wednesday afternoon. The module wrapped cabin and outlying buildings and placed hose and sprinklers which can be controlled by a remote start pump.

Due to high spread potential, a closure for the entire Dean Creek drainage is pending.

In addition to the Cannon and Dean Creek fires, the Highrock Fire was detected on Aug. 13 and is burning on the south facing slope near the top of the ridge that divides Highrock Creek from Little Salmon Creek.

On the Canadian border, the lightning-caused Weasel Fire has burned 1,659 acres in the U.S. and an additional 2,078 acres in Canada and is reported to be 20 percent contained.

Located just south of Frozen Lake, the fire has burned across road 114A and is heading south towards the fire scar from the 2017 Weasel Fire. Fire behavior has been minimal with creeping, smoldering and isolated torching of trees.

An area closure order is in place and posted that restricts access to the fire area for public and firefighter safety. Forest Service Road 319 to the Weasel Cabin is closed but Forest Service Road 114 to Polebridge remains open.

The Sutton Fire originated Aug. 14 and is a lightning-caused fire burning 102 acres 13 miles southeast of Eureka and approximately 60 miles north of Libby. Officials reported that great progress has been made by firefighters and crews managing the Sutton fire in the past few days. This fire is being managed by a Type 3 Incident Management Team and has multiple air resources.

Portions of NFS Road 494 (Sutton Ridge Road) and 7959 (Skid Creek Road) are closed as is trail 800.

Fire is expected to continue to burn south and west, but it may back down to FS Road 494. North winds may push the fire towards critical holding points as increased fire behavior is expected with current and predicted weather forecasts.

In the Mission Mountains, information on the Redhorn Fire was last updated Aug. 12 when the fire was reported to be 515 acres in size and zero percent contained. The fire is located 7 miles northeast of St. Ignatius in Tribal Mission Mountain Wilderness.