SEELEY LAKE – There has been a lot of press about evacuation warnings, orders and recommendations to leave the Seeley Lake area. Missoula County Sheriff’s Office Captain Anthony Rio said the only reason the Sheriff’s Office will issue an evacuation order is if a fire is an eminent threat to public safety. Other issues such as air quality, while health officials recommend leaving the area, do not warrant a forced evacuation.
An evacuation warning means the fire is in the area. Based on the observed fire behavior and fuel conditions between the fire and a community, there is the possibility that within an hour, if conditions change, the fire could reach structures.
“The [Rice Ridge] fire is in the tough place. It is so close to town,” said Captain Rio. “Because this warning has gone on for so long, I think that people start to get complacent. Everyday our guys are on alert. We plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
The Incident Management Team establishes long term and daily trigger points. These are pre-identified points, whether it is a physical location, observed fire behavior or weather related that if the fire does this, this is the pre-determined response.
If the fire reaches a point where part of the response is to discuss evacuations, the Sheriff’s Office gets involved. The Incident Commander and the Operations Chiefs make recommendations to law enforcement providing them with time frames
“If there is an order, it would be the incident commander and the operations chief telling us that they can no longer be responsible for people’s safety,” said Captain Rio. “Once there is an eminent threat then the Sheriff has to make the order.”
If an adult chooses not to leave, Rio said he would call and have a personal conversation with the Sheriff. If children, under the age of 18, are involved “the kids would go. People who don’t have the ability to choose for themselves and people who are going against an order would probably cause us to act to make sure [the children] are safe.”
If law enforcement drives through neighborhoods with their high-low siren and are not able to make personal contact, Rio said it is the residents’ responsibility to evacuate.
“It says right on the warning, we may not be able to come back and make personal contact,” said Captain Rio. “We will do our best but we may not know [who is left].”
The Sheriff’s Office is operating with a skeleton crew in Seeley Lake because of all the activity in the vicinity of the Lolo Peak Fire. If they needed help with evacuations, Rio said he could have reinforcements within 25 minutes.
“An evacuation order does not mean the town is going to burn down [or structures are being lost]. It means we need to get people out so firefighters can work,” said Incident Commander Steve Goldman at the community meeting Thursday, Aug. 17. “We could lose structures; hopefully we won’t. We will do everything we can to prevent that. But we need to get everyone out in a timely manner…and we need to make sure [the community] is safe because you are the most important thing to us.”
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