Fires close some campgrounds, trails

The air might be a bit smoky, but most campgrounds, boat launches and hiking trails across the Inland Northwest are expected to remain open for Labor Day weekend.

However, the U.S. Forest Service has issued several closure orders because of the fires. Navigation Campground on Upper Priest Lake is closed, as are several trails northwest of Priest Lake. The agency is also urging boaters to use “extreme caution” when navigating in the Upper Priest Lake area because of helicopters using the lake to fill their water buckets.

Some grouse hunters anticipating the start of the season today also have had to change their plans because of the Tripod Complex fire in north-central Washington.

In southeast Washington, all areas of the Umatilla National Forest north of the Washington border are closed.

Information on trail closures is posted at trailheads and available at any U.S. Forest Service office, including the agency’s Web site, www.fs.fed.us.

Despite Wednesday’s brief shot of rain and cold weather, wildfires continue to burn across the region.

None of the fires in North Idaho is threatening any homes, but the Gem Peak and Little Snowy Top lookout towers have been wrapped in flame-resistant material.

The rain and cool weather actually slowed efforts to contain the Ulm Peak fire, which has been burning for the last two weeks along the Montana-Idaho border, about 12 miles southwest of Noxon, Mont.

Firefighters were conducting a “burnout” to widen fire lines when the rain – and even some snow – arrived, said Gary Hoshide, fire information officer. By conducting controlled burns, firefighters had hoped to create fire lines up to 200 feet wide.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Hoshide said of the moisture. “It helps put out the fire, but it also helps prevent the possibility of a burnout.”

The fire had burned about 1,500 acres and was listed as 4 percent contained Thursday.

A massive fire burning near Big Timber, Mont., is also drawing firefighters and aircraft from the region. One helicopter and several firefighters were sent from the Ulm Peak fire Thursday to help in Montana, where officials reported at least 20 homes had burned Thursday.

Northwest of Priest Lake, about 1,600 acres have burned in three separate fires. The biggest of the fires, the Hughes 32 and Hughes East, are burning in roadless forest largely inaccessible to firefighters. “Those fires won’t go out until it snows,” said Wayne Kopischke, with the Forest Service office in Priest Lake.

After two days of relative calm, the 149,728-acre Tripod Complex fire in Washington resumed its normal pace Thursday. About 2,259 personnel are assigned to the fire, which is 54 percent contained, said Greg Thayer, fire information officer.

Firefighters expect an active fire this weekend due to warmer weather and increased winds, but they hope trails created in the last few days will help.

Areas within the fire zone and roads leading to the fire are closed. Thayer said he’s received several calls from grouse hunters who can no longer use the area.

“There’s not many places right around here they can go,” he said. “They’ve got to go east.”

At the 79,324-acre Columbia Complex fire east of Dayton, six helicopters attacked the blaze with retardant and water Thursday. Those choppers helped drive the cost of the fire up about $1.5 million from Wednesday, reaching $9.1 million. The fire is about 25 percent contained, but roughly 350 residents remained evacuated as of Thursday afternoon.

The fire has destroyed one home, six cabins and eight outbuildings, said Bruce Prud’homme, fire information officer.

Firefighters at the Quinns Meadow Road fire north of Colville kept it contained to the same 375-acre footprint Thursday, and they have extinguished the south end of the blaze, said Omroa Bhagwandin, spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources.

A few area roads remain closed to non-residents, he said.