Earth Watch Report - Forest / Wild Fires
| 7.28.2013 | Forest / Wild Fire | USA | State of Montana, [Near to Arlee] |  |  |
Forest / Wild Fire in USA on Sunday, 28 July, 2013 at 04:09 (04:09 AM) UTC.
| Description | |
| A wildfire that started early Saturday afternoon in the Firestone Flats area near Arlee exploded to nearly 1,400 acres by 8:30 that evening. According to a tribal fire dispatcher, the blaze began as two fires on a day that saw a red flag warning with winds at 15 to 20 miles per hour and gusts up to 30 miles per hour, and humidity between 10 and 15 percent. "When the humidity gets below 25 percent, you have fire behavior that becomes more extreme," the dispatcher said. "The fire was reported at 2 p.m. as just a small column of smoke, and by the time we were able to get our aircraft off the ground out of Ronan - which was just a few minutes - we had reports of a huge column of smoke." He said the cause remains under investigation, but there hasn't been any lightning in that area for about three weeks and there have been a lot of huckleberry pickers and other people. In order to battle the fire, a large number of resources have already been mobilized, including three single-engine air tankers, three heavy air tankers, three Type One helicopters, one Type Three helicopter, four Type Six engines from tribal fire as well as several more on the way, two Type One hotshot crews - the Lolo and Bitterroot hotshots, and one Type Two initial attack crew. The Arlee and St. Ignatius fire departments are also providing mutual aid and a pair of additional 20-person Type Two crews have been requested. Jocko Canyon was evacuated due to the fire, and roads in and out of the area have been restricted. "There are three roads that access the area, and the one that runs up to St. Ignatius is blocked to traffic going in. The Missoula County Sheriff's Office has the road coming from Seeley Lake onto the reservation blocked to keep traffic out and then the Jocko Canyon Road is blocked," the dispatcher said. |
Forest / Wild Fire in USA on Sunday, 28 July, 2013 at 04:09 (04:09 AM) UTC.
Back| Updated: | Sunday, 28 July, 2013 at 05:01 UTC |
| Description | |
| The Firestone Flats fire raced across more than 1,500 acres in the Jocko Canyon area Saturday, even as firefighters fought to stop its growth and protect homes. Reported shortly before 2 p.m., the fire spread quickly, producing a massive smoke plume and challenging firefighters at every turn. In the evening, crews did burnouts along Jocko Road to protect homes. They intended to work through the night, digging lines and watching over the houses, said Martha Smith, a spokeswoman on the fire. “Their main focus is to protect those structures along that road,” she said, adding that more firefighters were arriving by the hour. While crews scrambled to gain a foothold on the ground, helicopters and air tankers dumped water and fire retardant on the heavily timbered canyon east of Arlee. All access to the canyon was blocked and people were evacuated from 21 homes and several campgrounds. The Heart View Center on Jocko Road was opened to evacuees, and animals can get shelter at the Arlee rodeo grounds. The Seeley Lake Ranger District closed the Forest Service’s portion of the Jocko Road to protect public safety. Smoke and ash from the fire was thick in the Seeley and Placid lake areas as darkness fell; the air quality isn’t likely to improve for several days, a health officer warned. | |
RAVALLI REPUBLIC
Burnout operations keep 1,750-acre wildfire in Jocko Canyon in check
ARTHUR MOURATIDIS/for the Missoulian
Tammy
Petersen, a Forest Service worker from Helena, finishes setting up her
tent at the Arlee Powwow Grounds on Sunday afternoon, now housing the
Firestone Flats fire camp and the Type II incident management team led
by Bob Fry.
As a mini-city of tents and firefighters erupted around him at the Arlee Powwow Grounds, a giant plume of smoke rose from the 1,750-acre Firestone Flats wildfire, climbing straight into the sky.
“If the winds come up and start pushing things around and the fire lays down, then we have trouble,” said Fry, a seasoned incident commander whose Type II team officially took over management of the Arlee fire on Sunday evening.
“As long as it’s going straight up, we know what it’s doing.”
During the day, Fry prepared for his duties by hitting the ground with firefighters from Arlee and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, inspecting the work crews did on Saturday when the wildfire erupted.
“The Arlee fire chief and I went up the canyon and looked at all the structure protection in place and where the fire is burning,” Fry said. “The fire has a lot of potential, especially on the east flank and the north flank.”
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