What appear to be a couple of relatively minor wildfires were detected in Flathead National Forest on Monday . . .
Two new fires were detected on the Flathead National Forest Monday, and both are being suppressed.
The Gorge Fire was less than an acre, burning about 10 miles northeast of Condon in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Another fire, located near Dry Lake on the Swan Lake Ranger District, hadn’t been named or sized up as of Monday afternoon.
The Wildfire Information page was getting a bad case of “link rot.” Maintaining accurate links to government agencies is a bit of a chore.
Anyway, the page has been updated with various corrections and some new material.
The U.S. Forest Service is starting to get busy. They’ve now got a 3,000 acre blaze in the Bob, after a couple of fires merged, as well as several smaller actions elsewhere. According to the following article from the Daily Inter Lake, they did manage to suppress a small wildfire in the North Fork’s Coal Creek drainage yesterday. . .
A fire that rapidly expanded in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex has merged with another fire to the east to cover a total of 3,000 acres by Monday afternoon.
The Rapid Creek Fire first was sized up at less than acre at midday Sunday, but by the afternoon it had grown to 500 acres and by Monday morning it was estimated at 1,000 acres.
The fire is located on the east side of the wilderness about 27 miles west of Augusta. The fire has been churning through heavy, beetle-killed timber across the Flathead Forest’s boundary with the Lewis and Clark National Forest, where It burned into the 700-acre Elbow Pass Fire by Monday afternoon.
Well, the U.S. Forest Service had an incident team set up on Moran Meadow today, a short distance south of Polebridge. Reportedly, they were working with helicopter support (a shiny red one) to knock down a spot fire in the Coal Creek area. They appeared to be doing water drops.
So, it looks like its time to remind our loyal readership that this site has a Wildfire Information page, with links to a number of useful resources.
Also, the Daily Inter Lake, as in the past, is shaping up as the newspaper of record for wildfire news this year. You can read today’s report online, which centers on the situation in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
The fire response folks at Montana DNRC are hoping to introduce a little 21st Century tech this year by announcing wildfire developments via Twitter . . .
Fire response coordinators in Montana will use the social media website Twitter this year for the first time as a way to update residents of wildfire developments such as road closures and evacuation notices…
“The goal is to be able to provide updates, particularly on initial attacks or extended attacks, when it’s a fast-moving situation,” Grassy said.
The updates from the Twitter page @MTDNRCFIRE, will be another tool used by the state to update wildfires in addition to telephone alert systems that can target homes and cellphones in specific geographic regions and the fire information website InciWeb.
The Daily Inter Lake has a pretty good report on current wildfire status in the region . . .
While fires burning in and around the Bob Marshall Wilderness are still listed as “active,” recent rains and cooler, longer nights have mostly put a lid on them.
From the Daily Inter Lake . . .
With the early rifle season in wilderness areas opening today, the Spotted Bear Ranger District is urging backcountry hunters to be aware of multiple trail closures caused by ongoing wildfires in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
And Forest Service officials advise there could be more trail closures with future fire growth. The National Weather Service is forecasting increased westerly winds, especially in higher terrain across Northwest Montana starting later today and continuing into Friday.
From the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Several wildfires touched off by lightning Sept. 8 made galloping runs over the weekend along the Continental Divide, most of them in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
From the Hungry Horse News , , ,
A fire on the south side of Big Mountain and another in Marion drove home the point of the Flathead County Commissioners in imposing Stage 1 fire restrictions on private property in Flathead County…
As fire crews battled the two fires – both likely human-caused – and facing persistent hot and dry conditions that continued to fuel fires, the Flathead County Commissioners approved Stage 1 fire restrictions on Sept. 6.
The restrictions ban fireworks, require that campfires have a fire ring no larger than three feet in diameter and limits smoking to buildings, vehicles or areas that are cleared of vegetation…
It is still a fairly quiet fire season in this corner of Montana. The Daily Inter Lake has an overview . . .
The National Weather Service is forecasting a weather front that should cool down Western Montana fires, including a new one that recently emerged northeast of Libby.
A weather system is expected to invade the Northern Rockies Wednesday into Thursday, producing much lower temperatures and showers.