Drought, resource constraints pose challenges in wildfire fight

With two large wildfires already burning in the Troy area and the West suffering a major drought, local officials want to impress upon residents the severity of the strain on emergency services.

“Because of the conditions and lack of resources, this is an unprecedented year for this stuff,” said County Commissioner Brent Teske (D-1) on Aug. 4. “People need to know that. They can’t take it lightly.”

Teske issued the warning during a presentation by members of Great Basin Team No. 6, which has taken over firefighting efforts at the Burnt Peak and South Yaak fires, both of which have been burning since July. Incident Commander Tracy Dunford deemed the ongoing drought and the amount of wildfire activity across the country as the primary challenges facing his team.

With 30 large incidents in the northern Rockies geographic area, and that being a small percentage of the overall fire activity nationwide, resources are hard to come by, he said.

“As you know it’s super busy and, really, what that’s done is created a triage situation,” Dunford told the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners.

Looking at it through the lens of triage, the Lincoln County fires are low priority, Dunford said. As of that morning, the Burnt Peak Fire was at 3,384 acres and 46 percent contained. The South Yaak Fire sat at 9,290 acres and was 10 percent contained.

They have since grown to 3,465 acres and 9,795 acres, respectively.

“With the limited resources, they’re trying to assign those to the highest priority incidents out there,” Dunford said. “And we’re not one of the higher priorities. That’s good — in a way. To be one of those high priorities, you’ve got to have a lot of value threatened and burned down a lot of homes.”

Evacuation orders still stand on the East Side Road and Kilbennan Lake Road, but officials hope to allow residents to briefly return and check on their belongings in the coming days, though that is weather dependent, Dunford said.

Near the South Yaak Fire, homes in Pine Creek, 17 Mile Creek and Sylvanite are on pre-evacuation notice. Closer to the Burnt Peak Fire, homes in the North Fork Keeler Creek area remain on pre-evacuation notice.

As for tactics, Dunford said the strain on resources, specifically the lack of personnel, had compelled the team to take an indirect approach, mostly building fire lines and protecting assets. Mack McFarland, operations chief for the team, said crews were opening old logging roads on the north side of the Burnt Peak Fire, which remains uncontained. Those would serve as lines, but lines won’t extinguish the blaze, McFarland said.

“They’re not going to put them out. We can draw a box around with bulldozers five miles out, but that’s not going to put that out,” McFarland said. “It’s going to give us opportunities to access the fire if it grows out to those areas. That’s primarily our strategy. We just don’t have access to 20-person hotshot crews.”

One such line was extended from Copper Mountain to Callahan Creek and crews hope to push it from there to near the Idaho border. McFarland said construction of the indirect line came as the fire established a toehold in the Goat Creek drainage, potentially opening a path to Troy.

“Should the fire push up, we’re in a better position to access it,” he said. “It’s all about access in this country.”

As for the South Yaak Fire, containment was mostly in the area around Kilbrennan Lake Road, McFarland said. They hope to tie fire defenses there to Skinner Lake. Further south, crews were working along East Side Road, trying to keep the blaze from crossing the Yaak River.

When Teske asked about aviation, McFarland said that aircraft were unable to fly earlier in the week because of smoke and low visibility. That will change as soon as the skies clear, he said.

McFarland said the team had successfully drawn upon the county’s large supply of equipment, especially logging equipment, to work through the terrain. He and Dunford also praised local officials — including Sheriff Darren Short and Teske, who was the county emergency management chief prior to becoming commissioner — as well as Kootenai National Forest personnel and Troy’s fire chief.

“It’s just very much appreciated,” Dunford said. “It’s not always that way. To have that cooperation makes our job all the better. We’re in this all together and that’s the way we like to do it.”

Chad Benson, supervisor of the Koootenai National Forest, also was on hand. Closing the forest was a real possibility, he told commissioners.

“There’s really two things in my mind that would take us into full closure,” Benson said. “You get so much fire on the landscape that you can’t even manage closures, they just overlap. The other thing is if the indices are still hanging super high and we can’t get out ahead of human caused starts.”

The rain going into Monday bought the region a little more time, he said. But a close call along state Highway 37 involving a power line earlier this week had caused anxiety, Benson said. He urged the commissioners to continue helping in any way they could. Doing so might prevent a closure of the forest.

Commissioners, in turn, urged residents to stay cautious.

“It’s up to the public and our partners to help out and keep that [risk] down,” Teske said.