Untold Stories of the Jocko Lakes Fire

SEELEY LAKE – The $31.5 million price tag for the 2007 Jocko Lakes Fire made it the costliest fire in Montana history to date. During the height of suppression efforts, Montana spent $1 million per day to keep the fire west of Seeley Lake and north of Placid Lake. While the cost to suppress the fire and direct impacts to timber loss were measurable, the financial toll on the local economy from widespread evacuations and the nearly two-week closure of Highway 83 was harder to quantify.

"When you pull the trigger and you tell the [Incident Management] Team, 'Put the fire out,' you have, to a certain extent, opened the check book," said Steve Wallace, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation's Line Officer for the Jocko Lakes Fire. "I don't think they were wasting money but I do think teams, when you tell them to put the fire out, start collecting all the toys they can get and they are going to put the fire out."

The direct cost of the Jocko Lakes Fire is put in perspective when compared to the Railey Fire and the Conger Fire that both burned on the Seeley Lake Ranger District in 2007. The Railey Fire cost $2 per acre and the Conger cost $24 per acre for the U.S. Forest Service to suppress. In the end, the Jocko Lakes Fire cost the DNRC $875 per acre.

"At the time, given the threat to the community, we were the number one priority in the nation for nearly two weeks," said Seeley Lake District Range Tim Love. "We could get anything we asked for. If I was the incident commander, I would have been doing the same thing."

Wallace said the discussion about treating the USFS roads for dust abatement was a $100,000 expense that he avoided as long as he could. However, because of the increased volume of traffic and visibility problems due to the dust, they treated the roads for safety.

"You make the best decision you can, with the most information that you have at the time and then you live with the consequences. It's always easy in hindsight to look back [and question]," said Wallace.

Nearly 30 percent of the costs were for heavy equipment closely followed by supplies. Handcrews, air resources and personnel each contributed to 16 percent of the total cost followed by five percent for rehabilitation.

It was estimated the 162.5 million board feet of timber was lost on Plum Creek, USFS and DNRC lands, a $49.2 million value.

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Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Inc. employees showed up at the mill between 10-11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, 2007. "It was very odd. No one talked about coming down but everyone was here about the same time grabbing things," wrote Loren Rose, chief operating officer for Pyramid. "Every time you went outside with another load, the flames seemed closer. Watching them on the hillside was surreal. No one wanted to say it but we all thought it was going to keep coming."

Pyramid hired their main logger Parke Logging from Drummond, Mont. to install an extensive sprinkler system around the mill yard for fire suppression. They arrived Saturday and by Sunday the system was installed. Parke Logging put in nearly 300 man-hours from Aug. 4-8 maintaining the system and patrolling the mill.

Due to the evacuations, Pyramid was forced to stop production until it was safe to have crews on site. They lost four days of planer production and six days on the sawmill.

The closure of Highway 83 for nearly two weeks made it difficult to receive logs. Pyramid was fortunate to have a large timber sale situated between the closures. However, the first six days of the Highway 83 closure they dropped from nearly 28 loads per day in July to 11.5 loads per day. They estimated they lost 150 truckloads of logs because with the highway closure the logs that were destined for Pyramid were taken to other mills that could accept them.

Lumber shipments also ground to a halt during the Highway 83 closure. The first three days of August, Pyramid shipped 254,638 board feet per day. The first week of the fire they shipped 22,706 board feet per day. Lost revenue from lumber shipments was around $375,000.

Production for August was 80 percent of the monthly average for 2007. Costs were 20 percent higher than the rest of the year due to paying personnel to maintain the sprinkler system, fire patrols and extra night watchmen while the sawmill was not operating. These non-production wages were slightly more than $32,000.

"The fire exacerbated an already bad financial situation [due to being in the second of four recession years]," wrote Rose.

The mill never recovered the time or production.

In addition to the lost revenue from lumber shipments that were never received due to the Highway 83 closure, Rose estimated the Jocko Lakes Fire cost Pyramid $197,890. Insurance reimbursed them for $97,890 and they were able to get 10-year FEMA loan with favorable interest for $700,000. Rose said the loan was easier to access than the insurance proceeds.

"Our crew and their families were remarkable in their support and encouragement!" wrote Rose.

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Wold's Valley Market, now Cory's, never closed during the fire. Owner Bruce Wold and his son Jason parked their fifth-wheel on site and stayed open for several nights for the firefighters. Then they put a sign on the door to knock on the trailer door after hours.

The night of the evacuations, the Wolds sat and watched all the traffic leaving town.

"Cars and trucks pulling trailers and boats coming off Whitetail Drive onto Highway 83 was crazy. People honking and trying to pass others," wrote Wold in an email. "Cars were cutting across the parking lot to get on the highway faster. It reminded me of the movie Dantes Peak."

Wold estimated he lost $15,000 per day because of the evacuations and Highway 83 closure. However he was able to recover his losses through fire purchases.

"The purchases were the only thing that kept me afloat," wrote Wold.

The biggest challenge for Wold was the fire crews wanted their supplies immediately. Wold's warehouse stepped up and could provide daily deliveries or Wold would drive to Missoula and pick up things from his other vendors. He also delivered to the fire camp at Harper's Lake to keep their business.

The Market parking lot was designed as a safe site one day when they called all the firefighters off the fire due to wind changes. Wold directed vehicles to park then climbed up on the roof to take pictures.

"That is when they started the roll call to make sure everyone was out and safe," wrote Wold. "Scary time trying to hear each crew answer when their name was called out."

The Wolds also made food in their large Dutch ovens and served it to any of the firefighters and support crew that stopped in.

Towards the end of the fire, Wold said the fire camp ordered eight pallets of water and another eight pallets of Gatorade. When he delivered the next morning, they had released most of the crews so they didn't take any of it.

Wold's warehouse took the water back but he was stuck with nearly $10,000 worth of Gatorade.

"I donated Gatorade to all the different sports and fundraisers for quite a while," wrote Wold.

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The businesses that heavily rely on tourism took a huge hit during the Jocko Lakes Fire. While downtown Seeley Lake was never evacuated and many of the businesses remained open for the majority of the fire, the closure of the lake for aerial resources and the Highway 83 closure prevented tourists from visiting. Business owners also credit the media for deterring business by sensationalizing the fire and reporting things inaccurately or making it look worse than it was.

Dena Turner, current owner of Good Times, remembers former owner Sue Shea crying on a television interview with one of the local stations. While they sold fire t-shirts to help with the loss of revenue, Turner estimated Shea lost thousands of dollars. Turner, who worked for Sue in 2007, said she sold one bathing suit in August. They stayed open for the DVD rentals that at least paid the rent.

"August is a very busy month and I know Sue had to contact a lot of her reps to delay paying them until business picked up," wrote Turner in an email. "Luckily, all her accounts were sympathetic with her and allowed her to pay them at a later date."

The Grizzly Claw Trading Company estimated that they lost 75 percent of their business that summer.

Owner Susan Baker said it was terrifying to see the fire come and the whole town shut down. She hopes she never sees it again but was thankful the fire crews were able to keep the fire out of town.

"It was terrible for us," added owner Dee Baker. "We could be open but there was no one here to buy anything. The firefighters were our main business."

The Bakers would offer coffee specials to the firefighters but they said the firefighters understood their financial strain. Many purchased gifts for their family and friends.

The Tamaracks Resort north of Seeley Lake had all 17 cabins booked through August and September 2007. When the fire crested the hill Aug. 3, they had to go around and tell everyone to leave. Owner Sue Heagy said in 24 hours everyone was gone.

"They stayed gone and they didn't come back," she said. "Some never came back and others didn't come back until the following year. For Seeley Lake, having to lose your entire guest account for two months plus was huge."

The Tamaracks was not evacuated. Evacuees came to the resort and Heagy volunteered housing for everyone she could. She charged a minimum amount to cover cost. They also housed firefighters for two weeks which helped recover some of the loss.

Heagy estimated they lost more than $75,000 in revenue from Aug. 2 through end of September.

She remembers combing through their insurance policy. The Bertsches from The Lodges called and gave them the clause in the policy that reimbursed them for the deposits but not the loss of business.

"Had they not blocked the highway, we would have had no money from our insurance company," said Heagy. "It had to be a state or federal evacuation mandate and it didn't cover us because we weren't told to evacuate. We were still open. The only reason we couldn't get business was because they couldn't get here."

The Filling Station never closed. When the evacuations started and they affected the employees, Owner Kris Martin described it as a "wonderful, family thing that we did. One person would go home and pack up all their stuff and moved their family and then they would come back here. Then someone else could go and we always kept a group of people."

Martin said she stayed open for the locals who weren't evacuated.

"Anyone that was left in town that didn't want to cook at home or buy a ton of groceries in case they were evacuated, they wanted to come out and eat, get a beer or whatever, we were open," said Martin. "I wasn't going to leave until they kicked me out of here."

The Filling Station also provided meals for the firefighters when the camps were smaller than 100 people at the beginning and end of the fire. Since Martin also owns the laundromat, she hired someone to do laundry twice a day for the camp.

"We just hustled. We made ends meet," said Martin. "We even had our regular increase that we expected that year. We couldn't say it was due to tourism. But if you just looked at numbers and not what actually happened it was fine."

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Now, 10 years later with the 11,000-acre Rice Ridge Fire burning on the east side of Seeley Lake, businesses are facing many of the same challenges.

While no evacuations have been ordered, the entire town and Double Arrow Ranch are under evacuation notice. However equally detrimental to the town's economy has been the air quality.

Because of the record levels of particulates from wildfire smoke and hazardous air quality, Missoula City-County Health Department came out with an official statement Wednesday, Aug. 9 recommending people spend as little time in Seeley Lake as possible. For residents who do not wish to pre-evacuate, they recommend spending the night and morning away from town and returning only when the smoke clears.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks closed the waters of Seeley Lake to all recreation Tuesday, Aug. 1. This was for public safety while aerial resources used the lake water to fight the fire. As of Aug. 15, the lake remains closed.

While businesses are grateful for the aerial resources that have been so critical for keeping the fire north of Seeley Lake and don't want anyone to compromise their health to stay in Seeley Lake, many feel the media has again slanted their coverage and twisted the story enough to hurt business.

From to headlines touting "Seeley Lake is Closed," when Highway 83 and the town remain open, and "Seeley Air Quality Evacuation is First in Montana – Smoke Problem Will Get Worse," when no formal evacuations have been issued, only exacerbate what is looking like a dismal August with costs piling up once again.

Next week the final part in the Untold Stories of the Jocko Lakes Fire: The last 10 years have brought about many changes. We will examine some of the ecological, policy and community changes that have happened as a result of and using the Jocko Lakes Fire as the catalyst.