County fire season begins

Fire season is here; now it is a matter of getting through it with minimal impact.

With no measurable precipitation recorded in this area in over three weeks now and fires beginning to break out across western Montana, fire control officials are bracing for another busy fire season, and urging people to be very careful with fire until the danger passes.

All local fire agencies – the U.S. Forest Service offices in Plains, Trout Creek and Superior, the Montana DNRC out of Plains, and the BIA Confederated Kootenai Salish Tribes office based out of Ronan – have moved the fire-risk needle up to 'Very High' as of this week.

Fire restrictions have not been enacted as of yet but that will most certainly change within the next few weeks if conditions don't improve soon.

The Plains Dispatch Center, after having a small fire break out along Highway 28 Sunday (that blaze was contained by a joint response of BIA, DNRC and USFS forces at about an acre), had another one start in generally the same area Tuesday morning. Dispatcher Ned Winebrenner said the latest fire was contained at three-tenths of an acre, and that the causes of both Highway 28 incidents are still under investigation.

Another fire along Highway 28 was found Sunday and put down by the BIA.

The Plains Dispatch Center also coordinated responses to two island fires in the Thompson Falls area last week.

The Island Park Fire was discovered and extinguished Friday by a combination of Thompson Falls Rural and U.S Forest Service firefighters. That blaze was discovered burning in pile of driftwood and was limited to less than a quarter of an acre by responding forces.

The other island fire, fittingly called the Island Fire, was first reported Saturday night and was put out by the Forest Service Sunday. That fire, also almost certainly human-caused, was controlled at about a quarter of an acre, and was burning on what is commonly referred to as the "Big Island" a little ways east of the mouth of Thompson River.

The Cabinet Ranger District responded to two fires in their protection area in the past few weeks. A half-acre fire burning near Trout Creek was put out July 16, and a quarter-acre fire burning near the popular Triangle Pond in the Noxon area was contained Sunday. The causes of those fires also remain under investigation.

With the fire danger now pegged as Very High, the Cabinet Ranger District portion of Sanders County, along with all other lands in the Kootenai National Forest, will go into Stage 1 fire restrictions beginning Friday.

If the current weather pattern holds and it stays hot and dry, the rest of Sanders County, including lands administered by the Lolo National Forest, the DNRC and the BIA, will likely enter Stage 1 restrictions as well.