Storm sparks numerous new blazes in area
The fast-moving wind and thunderstorm that swept through the Inland Northwest late Friday afternoon sparked many grass and timber fires in North Idaho, according to Tom Paulson of the Coeur d’Alene Interagency Fire Dispatch Center.
But those blazes were mere sparks compared to the 2,000-acre Blackerby fire in north-central Idaho, where federal fire managers added crews and equipment Friday to protect 80 houses. Lightning, meanwhile, sparked several new wildfires nearby, including one that threatened backcountry cabins and a historic hunting lodge.
“We have not lost any structures, but I would say they are still certainly threatened,” said Shannon Downey of the interagency team working the Blackerby fire. “We’re holding it OK, but if the weather changes it could get up and run on us, so we don’t want people to be overly confident.”
Some residents who live near the fire have refused to leave their homes. The flames are burning in steep, timber-covered terrain about five miles southeast of Grangeville, a town of about 3,200 people.
Fire crews are working round-the-clock shifts and Downey said five new crews totaling 100 people were being added to the 245 people on the lines Friday. Only 5 percent of the fire perimeter had fire line around it.
In all, 11 large wildfires were burning Friday in Idaho, more than in any other state, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The total jumped after lightning storms earlier in the week set off a series of blazes in the Payette, Nez Perce and Clearwater national forests that grew quickly Thursday and Friday.
“We’ve just got a ton of fires going on,” said Laura Smith, spokeswoman for the Nez Perce National Forest.
The biggest fire in the Panhandle was one that burned about five acres in Heyburn State Park. Other small fires were burning south of the Spokane River and near Hauser, Idaho.
“Just about everything got a pretty good drop of rain on it, so we’re actually looking pretty good,” Paulson said about 6 p.m. Friday.
About 30 lightning-sparked fires were burning between Sandpoint and Canada, Paulson said, while another 10 fires had been sparked in the northern counties.
Meanwhile, in Montana, snow and rain calmed wildfires in the mountains as cooler weather aided crews fighting valley blazes.
At least an inch of snow fell on one of Montana’s smaller fires, the 100-acre Limestone Peak blaze in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and rain dampened the 3,200-acre Kelly Point fire, also in the wilderness area.
To the south, a team of mostly Forest Service personnel interviewed the three firefighters who used emergency personal shelters Wednesday as the Tarkio fire in the Interstate 90 corridor advanced. The three were not harmed. The Tarkio and the West Mountain fire near Alberton are now one large fire, estimated at about 10,000 acres. Major power lines threatened by the Tarkio fire’s blowup Wednesday were back in service Friday.
Fleishman said there were enough gains against the Kelly Peak fire that the Forest Service planned to open several trails Saturday and said the South Fork of the Flathead River would be open to floaters. Some trail closures continued, as did a ban on camping in the area where the river meets Little Salmon Creek.
A 20-mile stretch of the Clark Fork River reopened to public use Friday. The area had been closed for safety reasons while buckets attached to helicopters scooped water to drop on I-90 fires.
The Forest Service has requested the public’s help in finding a man suspected of setting a fire Tuesday on private timberland in the Gold Creek drainage east of Missoula. Loggers immediately put out the small fire, said Forest Service spokeswoman Paula Nelson. The agency said the man was in a blue or black GMC pickup truck with Idaho license plates.