The Rice Ridge Fire blowing up northwest of the retardant base at Kozy Korner about 7:30 p.m. Friday night.
Members of the Ovando and Seeley Lake Community gathered for the community meeting at the Ovando School Friday night.
The Blackfoot-Clearwater Game Range including surrounding state parcels and the Horseshoe Hills have been close to recreation and hunting due to the extreme fire danger.
The Cottonwood drainage is very tight. This image shows the topography and where the fire slopped over the Cottonwood Lakes road and a spot started south of the road. The firefighters have been able to keep it north of the road in all other locations
Incident Commander John Thompson points out how the Rice Ridge Fire is burning into old burn scars in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
This map shows how close the fire is to the Monture Guard Station.
OVANDO – On Day 40 of the Rice Ridge Fire nearly 100 people filled the Ovando School Gym for a community meeting. Incident Commander John Thompson provided fire updates and answered questions from the community.
Meeting Highlights:
• The Lolo National Forest picked up 17 new fires in the last 48 hours, and five went large. One of the helicopters will be leaving in three days because they have timed out and another will be down for maintenance tomorrow. This is adding strain to already stretched resources.
• The Rice Ridge Fire is still number one in the Northwest region, however not nationally. The team is able to get most resource requests, how will continue to share resources when they can. A Hot Shot crew came in at 2 p.m. yesterday and worked until 3 a.m. Friday morning they got another hot shot crew. These crews are the most elite, come with the most experience and can be put in the most difficult terrain. This type of crew is a resource that has been missing on the Rice Ridge Fire.
• There is currently 75 miles of hose on the fire and 30 miles of fire perimeter.
• Wednesday and Thursday were the most challenging days of the fire season. Things still look good but the operations we were so close four times to loosing it.
• Because of the dryness of the fuels, an ember has an 80 percent probability that it will start another fire. This is why they are having such a problem with spot fires.
• Yesterday, they were about six spot fires away from evacuating Kozy Korner. However the aerial resources and crews from Alaska were able to catch the spot fires and hold the line.
• Today crews brought fire down from Mount Morrell towards Cottonwood Lakes Road. The goal is to get the fire off the ridgetops and out of the wind. By keeping the fire edge even using strategic burning operations and going slowly, firefighters have more control. They hold to bring the fire to the control lines in the next three to four days.
• The team in collaboration with the Missoula County Sheriff's Office is evaluating the evacuation order every four hours. The fire keeps pushing the Morrell Road and is still uncontained in the Morrell Creek Drainage.
• Thompson wants to see 24-hours with no spot fires in the Morrell Creek drainage before lifting the order. If nothing major changes, he anticipates in 36 hours the order could be lifted.
• The intention is to open the lake when the evacuation order is lifted. Thompson said he is concerned there will be too much confusion if one is opened and not the other.
• The northwest corner of the fire has been a challenge for firefighters because it continues to jump their control lines in the Murphy Creek and Sawyer Creek drainages. They are concerned about the area not only because of the Highway 83 corridor, structures and Lake Inez community, but also because the further west the fire moves, the more potential it will align with the north/northwest winds. This will push the fire towards Seeley Lake and negate the areas that are already contained. An east wind is predicted for late Sunday night and Monday night which is a concern.
• The fire has pushed east into the Little Shanley drainage. Firefighters are using the logging units which are slowing the fire and the logging road system to help fight the fire.
• Thompson estimates three or four good days, if the weather cooperates, they will be able to bring fire down to the control lines on Cottonwood Lakes.
• Horseshoe Hills is closed along with the Game Range are closed to all recreation and hunting including the surrounding state parcels because of the extremely dry conditions.
• Even though the Liberty Fire can be seen prominently from the south of Seeley Lake, it is burning south so it is not expected to impact Seeley Lake.
• The Black Fire, northwest of Seeley Lake is burning in the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribal primitive area. It is being suppressed. The tribe is in contact with the Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation should it cross over into state protection.
• Thompson's team times out Monday. They are unsure who will fill in behind them. Those plans are in the works.
• The next meetings will be Monday at 6 p.m. in Seeley Lake and Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Ovando. Locations are yet to be determined.
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