Bullock, Tester Briefed on Fire

SEELEY LAKE – Governor Steve Bullock (D-MT) and senior Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) visited Seeley Lake to get a firsthand look at the efforts to fight the Rice Ridge Fire. The pair attended a morning briefing at Seeley Lake Elementary Friday, Aug. 4.

"The number one fire in the nation is right here in Seeley Lake right now," said Bullock after the briefing. "I feel confidence in the crew doing it but it's heartbreaking for the community."

The Rice Ridge Fire has burned more than 8,000 acres as of press time and an estimated 500 structures and nearly 1,000 residents of Seeley Lake are potentially threatened should the fire move a little more than a mile south or west of its current boundary.

"These are serious fires that threaten lives and property," said Tester. "Local government and state government and federal governments are working together to get their arms around this. It always amazes me the job they do."

Tester said this is also an educational process, so that in Washington D.C. there can be a conversation about how to manage wildfire problems in a different way from a policy standpoint.

Earlier this summer, Tester helped secure resources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The original request for FEMA funding was turned down but Tester called FEMA administrator Brock Long and asked him to reconsider the request. The FEMA grant will cover 75 percent of the firefighting and mitigation costs incurred by the state of Montana.

"What it does bring up is we need to be starting to treat fire like a natural disaster, cause that's what it is," said Tester. "We need to be bringing FEMA in on all these fires quite frankly where we're seeing property damage that is really pretty devastating in rural communities like Seeley, and the damage here without the recreation season.... The lake is shut down for absolutely good reasons for fighting this fire, but it has impacts. It has economic impacts."

Both politicians thanked everyone who was involved in the efforts to combat the fire and Bullock assured local law enforcement that the National Guard was standing by in case they were feeling exhausted or overwhelmed.

Bullock declared a fire emergency for Montana July 23, which allowed him to utilize additional state resources as well as the Montana National Guard to combat fires, as well as access the state's general fund if the need arose. At the time, the 225,000-acre Lodgepole Complex in eastern Montana was the state's biggest concern.

"Going into the season I had a briefing that this should be one of our lighter seasons because of the moisture on the west side," said Bullock. "That's not proven to be true. We'll make sure that all of the resources the state can provide, when asked, will be there."