Fire season is here

Firefighters quickly doused a blaze along the Clark Fork River on a small stretch of wooded area some 10 miles northwest of Plains on Friday.

The River Road West Fire was contained by Saturday evening, but firefighters from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation remained on scene for days mopping up hot spots and making sure the fire was extinguished. DNRC's Jase Sorenson, the incident commander and the department's fire adapted community coordinator, said the fire was the result of an escaped campfire. DNRC did not release the name of the individual and said only that the person was from Montana. No charges or fines have been imposed. Sorenson said they are still looking into it.

"If you're going to have a campfire, make sure you have an established campfire ring. And ensure when it's out, it's cool to the touch," said Sorenson. He added that a person can be held responsible for firefighting efforts and for the cost of the suppression.

Sorenson said that as of Sunday the fire was in a contained status. Eight DNRC firefighters were conducting mop up efforts utilizing a Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District water tender on interior hot spots of the area and to secure control lines around the area. The rural fire district had six vehicles and 11 firefighters on scene. Fire trucks were positioned in an open area above the fire with hoses deployed to the firefighters below. The Lolo National Forest remains under "very high" fire danger conditions.

The fire was spotted by Fire Management Officer Ben Holland of DNRC from his Plains Unit office on Old Airport Road shortly after 3 p.m. and immediately firefighting assets were dispatched to the scene, arriving by 3:30 p.m., said Sorenson. The fire spread to only one and a half acres before it was contained.

DNRC firefighters, along with crews from the Forest Service's Plains-Thompson Falls Ranger District, and Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District first attacked the fire on the ground, but a helicopter from Missoula spent more than two hours dumping countless buckets of water from the nearby Clark Fork River on the blaze. Firefighters then moved in and continued to douse the fire from the ground. Firefighters from the Town of Plains Volunteer Fire Department showed up to the scene, but were unneeded.

Sorenson said there were about 30 firefighters on scene, including nine crew members from DNRC, the lead agency in fighting the fire. "Because of the proximity of the river to the fire, the helicopter was able to provide ample water supply to the fire,"said Sorenson, who added that the helicopter was an important asset to the fire. "They definitely helped to keep the fire in check so ground resources could get lines constructed around the fire," he said.

"As for the firefighters, they were outstanding. It's always great when we have multiple agencies working together on the same fire. Our ground and air resources were able to work together to check the fire in place in a timely fashion," said Sorenson, who added that the average number of human caused fires in the last few years was about 75%.

Last Wednesday, Trout Creek Rural Fire Department responded to a report of a fire along Highway 200 near Whitepine. A tree branch fell and struck a power line, sparking the blaze. The fire was contained to about half an acre. About 140 Northern Lights customers were affected by the fire, with power being restored to all within a few hours.

Crews in Plains also responded to a small fire in the Weeksville area near Plains last week. The fire was contained at half an acre.