Crews work to contain fires in Northwest Montana

Lightning spurs 12 fires over the weekend

Fires in the Kootenai National Forest were managed quickly and efficiently this weekend, while their neighbors in the Lolo National Forest finally gained some ground on the Copper King Fire now burning over 1,400 acres.

Lightning in the area started a total of 12 fires since Saturday, according to the Kootenai National Forest.

Jamey Graham, assistant center manager at the Kootenai National Forest said the fires that have started since Aug. 6 burned only a small acreage of land in total.

“Acreage-wise, it’s been minimal; we’re talking maybe two acres total, They’re all really small, single-tree fires,” Graham said.

“We definitely got a fair amount of lightning, but so far this is all we’ve picked up out of it.”

Graham said each fire garnered between three and 10 firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service, several of which would travel from site to site. Calls reporting fires to dispatch came from McKillop Creek, Coyote Ridge, Poker Hill and Fritz Mountain areas.

“They’ve only got the amount of resources that we’ve got,” Graham said. “We’ve got to shuffle them around sometimes.”

While storms brought the lightening that ignited these small burns, Graham said only .10-.75-inch of rain fell during that time, depending on the monitoring stations.

Meanwhile, the Copper King Fire in Lolo National Forest continues to grow and attract personnel. As of Monday, the blaze had increased to 1,445 acres, more than doubling its acreage in one week.

The Type II incident command team, along with four hotshot crews, four initial attack crews and several pieces of heavy equipment were able to gain five percent containment on the blaze over the weekend after allowing the fire to develop without containment until Saturday.

ACM Road east of Thompson River was partially closed as of Monday, along with Spring Creek Road. Several forest trails are closed, including Todd Creek, Big Hole Lookout, Spring Creek, Munson Creek, KooKooSint and Bay State. Copper King and Clark Memorial campgrounds are closed as well.

Crews are looking forward to the weather forecast, which predicts chances of rain to continue into Tuesday.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.