Rain, cool weather helps firefighters in the region
Fire restrictions remain in effect across region
By MARY CLOUD TAYLOR
Daily Inter Lake
Scatterings of rain across the greater Flathead Valley this week, officials say, are the first steps toward the end of this year’s fire season.
According to Ali Ulwelling, a Department of Natural Resources and Conservation fire prevention specialist, Stage II Fire Restrictions will remain in place until fire officials can meet on Tuesday.
“This is a great break, but it doesn’t really mean winter is here and it’s over and done,” Ulwelling said.
Ulwelling said she expects the restrictions will be lifted within the next two days, but reminds residents that the open burning season will not begin until Oct. 1.
Though the rain has provided considerable moisture to fine fuels, including grass and underbrush, Ulwelling said that it will take a sustained period of continual rainfall to bring moisture levels up in fire fuels such as timber and slash, slowing and extinguishing existing fires.
Cooler temperatures and wet conditions have been forecast for the remainder of the week, and as fire restrictions are lifted, the public will once again be permitted to use internal combustion engines, build campfires and drive off road.
Large scale burning operations will be prohibited until the first of October.
ON SCENE at some of the fires still burning in the area, fire officials are already seeing the impact of the increasingly wet conditions.
According to Caribou Fire Information Officer Ralph Swain, crews anticipate less and less activity on active wildfires like the 24,000-acre Caribou Fire burning northwest of Eureka.
Swain said that the fire’s management will transition back down to a Type III Team, who will focus less on fire control and more on rehabilitating the area affected by cleaning up fire lines, taking up hoses and removing equipment in preparation for the coming winter.
He expressed the excitement of the entire team as the forecast calls for rain throughout the week, saying the arrival of a wetter season will prove helpful and provide relief for both the fire teams and the community.
For the Caribou Fire, mop-up work is now complete on the east and southeast edges of the fire near West Kootenai and crews continue to prepare the land as the fire nears the prepared fire line to the southwest, which should halt its progress.
Minimal fire activity has been reported on the two other fires in the area, the Gibralter Ridge and Weasel fires, and mop up operations are underway at both sites.
In Glacier National Park, point protection remains in place around Lake McDonald Lodge and the McDonald Lake area as the 16,700-acre Sprague Fire continues to burn through heavy pockets of fuel, producing large amounts of smoke in the area. Helicopters are being used to drop water on hot spots and on the more active regions of the fire.
The 4,000-acre Adair Peak and 2,500-acre Elder Creek fires inside the park showed minimal activity over the weekend, and with the arrival of cooler, wetter weather, officials anticipate a slow in growth for all three park fires.
An evacuation order remains in effect from the south end of Lake McDonald north to Logan Pass, including North McDonald Road.
Minimal fire growth was also reported on the 160,000-acre Rice Ridge Fire near Seeley Lake, and crews have contained around 60 percent of the blaze.
The Highway 200 Complex fires located in Sanders County near the towns of Thompson Falls and Plains total about 47,000 in acreage and have been 18 percent contained. The Sheep Gap Fire, part of the Highway 200 Complex, is approximately two miles west of Plains. The remaining complex fires are located 8 miles north and west of Thompson Falls.
According to the Sanders County Sheriff’s Office, all evacuation notices for the Highway 200 Complex fires have been lifted. All areas in the evacuation and pre-evacuation areas are now considered under pre-evacuation notice until otherwise notified by the sheriff’s office.
The Ravailli County Sheriff’s Office has also rescinded the remaining evacuation warnings for the 54,000-acre Lolo Peak Fire.
Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.