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Weekend fire update |
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September 7, 2017 |
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| The West
Fork Fire in Montana looking into the
Quartz side. This was taken September 2,
and posted to Facebook by the Lincoln
County Sheriff's Office. |
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Eight new wildfires were detected across the
Coeur d’Alene Dispatch Area in the last week.
Firefighters have worked hard to contain new
starts quickly. While the poor air quality and
inversion helps to moderate fire growth, the
dense smoke does limit the ability for aerial
observations to detect new starts.
Public and firefighter safety is the highest
priority during initial attack on any new fires.
With all the smoke throughout Boundary County,
the sheriff's office is receiving countless
calls from people with concerns of local fires.
As of 4 p.m. today, there are no wildfires
burning within Boundary County!
However, there are fires in all directions, to
include British Columbia.
The fire management team in Lincoln County,
Montana, where several fires are burning, is
preparing for a wind event expected Friday with
wind gusts possibly between 20 and 25 miles per
hour. While such wind could be devastating for
areas that are burning, the wind should help
blow the smoke out of the valleys and lift the
current inversion.
The air quality alerts issued for the region
earlier this week have been extended until noon
Friday.
With very little to no precipitation and hot
temperatures persisting, extreme fire danger
subsists across the Idaho Panhandle.
Forecasted wind and lightning is expected to
increase fire activity over the next several
days. Visitors to the forest are asked to be
exceptionally careful while recreating and
hunting.
Firefighting resources are extremely limited as
the wildfire season continues across the
Northern Rockies.
The North Fork Hughes Fire (Priest Lake Ranger
District) is at 3,520 acres. The fire crossed
the Bench Creek drainage and is backing south
near Hughes Meadows. Firefighters are staffing
the 3.5 miles of sprinkler line along Hughes
Fork and Jackson Creek. Trail and area closures
are in effect.
The Buck Fire (St. Joe Ranger District) is 1,500
acres and is 10-percent contained. Crews are
using heavy equipment to prepare a contingency
line and prep Forest Service Road #322 and #201.
Firefighters are working hard to minimize fire
spread on to private industrial timber ground.
Both the North Fork Hughes and Buck Fires are
burning in extremely steep, rugged terrain with
heavy fuels and snag hazards. Fire managers
continue full suppression tactics as they look
for opportunities to engage safely. With the
continued hot, dry weather and challenging
terrain, public and firefighter safety is the
top priority. Information is updated, under
their respective names, at
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/.
If there are questions, please contact a public
information officer at 208-557-8813.
Stage 2 fire restrictions remain in effect on
all state, federal, and private forestland and
rangeland in Benewah, Bonner, Boundary,
Kootenai, Shoshone, and Latah Counties. This
also includes public lands in Washington and
Montana that are administered by the Idaho
Panhandle National Forests. For additional
information, visit
http://www.idahofireinfo.com/p/fire-restrictions.html.
For air quality information for Idaho, please
visit
http://www.deq.idaho.gov/air-quality/burning/current-wildfire-smoke-info/.
A number of dangerous fires are burning in
Lincoln County, and many have been evacuated
from their homes there.
The primary source of incident information for
each fire Lincoln County Fire is on their
respective InciWeb page. These are updated daily
by the teams assigned to each fire. Fires
currently active in Lincoln County are
Gibralter Ridge -
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5474/#,
Caribou -
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5539/#,
Moose Peak -
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5592/#,
Highway 200 Complex -
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5583/, and
the West Fork -
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5585/#. |
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