Quick response to Weeksville fire

A fire just west of Weeksville last week could have turned into a major forest fire had it not been for the quick response of local firefighters and dozens of assets thrown at the blaze.

The Weeksville Fire began as a trailer house fire Friday afternoon, but quickly spread to nearby grass, brush and timber. The wind and dry fuels took the fire up steep, rocky ridges where firefighters from seven agencies from Trout Creek to Plains fought to contain it. James Russell, chief of Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District, said the fire started in the trailer of Ben Coe about six miles west of Plains. It destroyed the trailer, an outbuilding and three vehicles, said Russell. No other buildings were lost and no injuries were reported.

A shop belonging to Peg McCarthy, whose home was just west of the blaze, caught fire, but firefighters from Thompson Falls Rural Fire District quickly extinguished the flames and saved the building. When McCarthy's deck at her home caught fire, her daughter, Erin, used a garden hose to extinguish it.

Erin McCarthy had been at her home nearby when the fire broke out earlier. Neighbor Bill Beck rushed to Erin's house to check on her and was spraying the nearby woods with a garden hose when firefighters advised them to leave. Beck said he was doused a little by water dropped on the fire from helicopters. The fire came within 200 yards of Beck's home, which is situated high on a bench along Highway 200. He believes the retardant dropped next to his house stopped the flames' approach.

"The right resources were there when we needed them and they worked their tails off," said Russell, who had almost a dozen firefighters and five trucks from rural district at the scene. Russell said the cause of the fire is unknown, but it will be investigated.

Firefighting units included more than a dozen trucks and tenders, bulldozers, helicopters, and fixed wing aircraft armed with retardant. There were eventually about 100 firefighters at the scene from Thompson Falls City Fire Department, Thompson Falls Rural Fire District, Trout Creek Rural Fire Department, Town of Plains Fire Department, Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and the U.S. Forest Service. Russell said he felt confident they had a good handle on the fire by around 8 p.m. Friday.

With the Clark Fork River only a few hundred yards from the fire, helicopters were able to constantly dump water on the fire, which made a big difference, said John Hamilton, the Plains-Thompson Falls Ranger Station public information officer. As of Tuesday morning, the 54-acre fire was 90 percent contained.

Jon Airhart of the Plains-Thompson Falls Ranger Station was the incident commander for the Weeksville Fire and the Munson Fire, which started Saturday afternoon and was located a short distance from the Weeksville Fire. The Munson Fire is thought to have started by an arc from an electrical power line, said Hamilton. He said some of the resources from the first fire diverted to the Munson Fire, which was only one acre and was 100 percent contained by Monday afternoon. The Weeksville Fire caused two power outages for several residents in the area. Firefighting crews stayed at the scene throughout Friday and Saturday nights to keep a close watch on the area.

"The incident commander of the two fires says some resources are being released, including a 20-person crew, a helicopter, a couple of engines and a water tender. Mop up operations will continue in the coming days on both fires until they are declared controlled and eventually out," Hamilton said on Monday. He noted that the Weeksville Fire is all on private land, but the Munson Fire is Forest Service land.

"We were kind of lucky. It could have been worse with all fuel that was there," said Russell. "We had a lot of good cooperation between agencies and we couldn't have done it without all those resources."