Fire tower ready for season

One of the first signs that fire season is right around the corner came last week when the Forest Service got Patrick's Knob Lookout ready for business.

With winds gusting to more than 20 mph and large patches of snow still scattered around the lookout tower, members of the Forest Service and the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) opened the station in preparation for lookout Chris Herrick to stand his summer watch over the forest.

Herrick, who also was on hand to get the tower ready, will begin his stay sometime in the first week of July. This is the second tour of duty for the Missoula resident, although he had to depart early last year to finish college.

Pat's Knob, as it is often referred to, is located abut 15 miles south of Plains at an elevation of 6,837 feet. A tower was first erected in 1934. It was replaced by the current 15x15-foot two-story tower in 1976. Also there to help open the tower was Craig Phillips, who has manned the Eddy Mountain Lookout for 12 years. He and the YCC group got his lookout ready for action days prior.

The team Friday unlocked the trap door and removed the dozen wooden panels covering the large windows and the one on the door, a task that took the group just over 30 minutes. Strong winds threatened to whisk away the panels as they were handed down from the second story observation deck to a crew on the ground, where they were stacked against the wall and tied together. The YCC members also delivered water to the tower, which they did at Eddy Mountain Lookout, too. At that station, the crew had to lower the window panels to the ground by rope, said Phillips.

Eddy Mountain Lookout was first built in 1931. After its demolishment, it was replaced with the present tower in 1982. It is located about 21 miles southeast of Thompson Falls. Eddy Mountain and Pat's Knob are the only active lookouts in Sanders County. Phillips helped board up both lookouts last September.

The 64-year-old Phillips passed on several stories to the YCC members as they gathered in the lookout to sign the visitor's log. Two of them, Parker Flock of Plains and Gage Fuhrman of Thompson Falls, are considering careers with the Forest Service. YCC member Rachel Wrobleski of Plains is thinking about applying for a seasonal lookout job in the future.

Phillips said lookouts do more than report fires. He said they provide weather reports to the dispatch center twice a day. Lookouts keep a close eye on spots where lightning hits. Phillips said it's sometimes days before a lightning strike will produce a fire. It was Phillips who saw a single lightning bolt hit a tree that developed into the Sheep Gap Fire last August. Phillips reported about a dozen fires in 2017. When a fire does occur, Phillips said he often helps direct firefighters to the scene. When he saw lightning hit Pat's Knob Lookout tower several years ago, he immediately called lookout Austin Urion to make sure he was alright. He was. Phillips said he also keeps a watch on train tracks after a train transits the area because a spark on the tracks can produce a fire. Herrick saw only the Sunrise Fire, but it had already been reported.

The two lookouts are similar. The only real difference is that Pat's Knob has electricity and Eddy Mountain runs on propane, but it has solar panels on the roof to power its radios. Most of the days at a lookout are uneventful, said Phillips, who was the last Cougar Peak Lookout in 2000. During the day, Phillips said that about every 15-20 minutes he makes a 360-degree scan of the area. "It's a lot of boredom mixed with total chaos sometimes," Phillips said.