Smoke helps contain Montana fires

Smoke from fires in Washington poured into Montana Monday, creating a type of inversion that helped keep some of the state’s forest fires from expanding, a fire official said.

“We did not see substantial growth” on the West Mountain fire and Tarkio fire burning along Interstate 90 west of Missoula, said Sharon Sweeney of the Lolo National Forest. “Smoke from the Washington fires aided us here, a bit of inversion that held down air movement and kept winds down,” she said.

The I-90 fires total about 4,000 acres and have nearly 850 people on the fire lines, Sweeney said.

The two active fires near Alberton prompted a mandatory evacuation order for 10 houses in a drainage south of town, near hotspots on the West Mountain fire, which was estimated at 30 percent contained. There also was concern about the safety of a major Bonneville Power Administration powerline that supplies electricity to the Pacific Northwest, but Sweeney said it was about a mile from the nearest flames.

Another fire in Western Montana, the Prospect fire, was estimated at 1,500 acres by evening and was burning in remote, difficult terrain near the I-90 corridor, not far from Superior, and 170 people were assigned to fight it. More people and firefighting equipment were coming in, Sweeney said.

It was started by lightning, while the other two fires were human-caused, officials said.

State officials said smoke from the Montana fires and that coming in from Washington was creating unhealthy air-quality conditions, especially in the Missoula area.

Air traffic has been prohibited near some of the fires.

The Camp 32 fire in the Eureka area of northwestern Montana has burned about 900 acres since starting Sunday afternoon on the northeast end of Lake Kookanusa. Updated mapping decreased the acres from 1,200, officials said, and it probably was human caused.

A special federal firefighting team was assigned to the fire late Monday, and about 350 people were expected to be on the lines soon.

The Lincoln County School District in Eureka put its buses and high school building at the service of firefighters, Superintendent Gary Blaz said. The school will serve as a dormitory and shower facility for crews from the main fire camp closer to the fire, he said.

The fire has destroyed one log outbuilding and one piece of logging equipment, said Kootenai National Forest spokesman Willie Sykes. There were some evacuations, and the American Red Cross opened a shelter at a Eureka church.

In the Bitterroot Valley south of Missoula, officials said higher humidity and some rain tempered fires, but two helicopters continued dropping water on the 3,500-acre Rockin Complex burning mostly in wilderness country.

In central Montana, a fire burning in Garfield County started from an electrical line and burned some outbuildings and corrals on a ranch, and another in southeastern Montana near Ashland blew up from 25 acres late Sunday to 400 acres Monday, partially fueled by downed timber from a previous fire in 2000, officials said. It was lightning caused.