Forest firefighters request public help; fire danger persists

WILDFIRES — With all the publicity about fire danger, not to mention all the smoke in the air, it’s hard to believe that some people still don’t get it.

Dumping smoldering briquettes in the woods? Unattended campfires? Can anyone be that clueless this summer?

Here’s an update posted Sunday and a plea from Jill Cobb, Fire Information Officer for the Priest Lake area firefighters.

It cannot be stated enough how much our crews feel welcome and appreciated by this community.  Having said that, we are asking for a little help from everyone to keep our crews safe and to help prevent future fires.

Crew Safety: Our crews are eating and showering at the gravel pit off of Ravin Ranch Road, north of the airstrip. These same crews sleep south of the airstrip off of Kalispell Bay Road at the Reynolds Creek Group site. It has come to our attention that shots are being fired late at night in the vicinity of our fire personnel. We are worried about the safety of our firefighters and support personnel and therefore respectfully ask the public to use firearms responsibly and be aware of our fire crews.

Wildfire Prevention :  We need your help to prevent future fires.

As unbelievable as it may seem, there are people who are still being careless with fires.  A few days ago, our firefighters had just finished a long 16 hour shift on the fire line.  These people were sleeping at the Reynolds Group Camping Site when they were awakened by the smell of smoke. When the firefighters should have been sleeping, they had to jump out of their beds to suppress this fire in the middle of the night.  It was determined that a careless camper who had stayed at the campsite prior to crews, had dumped hot charcoal briquettes in the woods. Forty eight hours later, the briquettes came back to life and started a fire.

Today, our folks were alerted to an unattended campfire in the vicinity of Stagger Inn.  This campfire was still very much alive and could have easily caused wildfire.  Again luck was on our side and we were able to prevent another wildfire. As you all know, we cannot be everywhere, so we really appreciate your help with extinguishing any fires that you find and letting us know if more help is needed. We are all in this effort together and unfortunately this is just the beginning of what may be a long fire season at Priest Lake.

On Tuesday, July 14, the Priest Lake area will be moving from Stage 1 to Stage II Fire Restrictions, which means no campfires will be allowed anywhere until the order is changed.

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