The Missoulian from Missoula, Montana • 3

Missoulian, Saturday, August 4, 2007 A3 FROM PAGE A1 Flames Continued Daugherty. "It blows a trench about 2 feet wide, and they did a lot of it on Friday." Along the Front, firefighters battled winds over 30 mph as they tried to stop the fire from rushing out of the mountains onto the plains. Evacuations are in place up and down the Front, Daugherty said, and firefighters have worked throughout the week clearing brush and trees from areas near isolated homes in places like Mortimer Gulch. Structure protection crews at Gibson Reservoir saw some flames Friday afternoon, but Daugherty said the fire put up such a pall of smoke, it was hard to say what was what. "That is a guess on acreage, because we really have no idea how far the fire ran today," he said.

"I can tell you we had a.red-flag warning about the wind and the warning came true. It started about noon and just took off all day." Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmooremissoulian.com. Windy forecast has crews on alert at Meriwether fire HELENA -The Meriwether fire grew slowly Friday, despite some windy conditions, but the incident management team is concerned Saturday's gusts could torch more acres in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness and Beartooth Wildlife Management areas. The most recent fly-over was done at 1 1 a.m. Friday, showing 37,048 acres burned.

The fire grew to the east and to the north Thursday night and Friday, crossing over the line into Cascade County. It's 33 percent contained. A large spot fire, which had been burning in more than 1,000 acres east of the fire, has coalesced with the main fire. The incident management team Friday night said a red-flag warning was in effect and would continue through Saturday. Active fire behavior is possible.

The forecast includes winds out of the west and northwest at 12 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Helena Independent Record information officer Dyan Bone. That fire burned mostly to the northeast, and a pre-evacuation order was in place for residences at Hubbard Lake on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Bone said. "It's early, but they want them to be ready," she said. About 25 homes on the Blackfect Reservation were evacuated after the Skyland fire burning in the Marias Pass area southeast of Glacier Park took off, and a main road BIA Route 2 -was closed between U.S.

Highway 2 and BIA Route 1. A few structures at an isolated dude ranch reportedly burned, but it wasn't clear that they had been recently occupied. "It's still OK in East Glacier and Heart Butte, but we had some winds about 30 mph today and it's gotten really, really smoky," said Edwin Running Wolf, information officer for the Blackfect tribe. "We do have some engines guarding three homes right now." And a fire that got its start near the Jocko Lakes along the Reservation Divide mushroomed from a lowly start to close to nearly 1,000 acres over the course of the breezy afternoon. That prompted road closures the Jocko Road was closed west of Placid Lake, the road to Lake Alvina was closed and the Archibald Loop west of Seeley also shut down.

"It's just that kind of fire season," said Tim Love, home is worth a firefighter's life. The Wyman fire has now burned about 3,320 acres, although that figure likely doesn't represent most of the fire's growth Friday afternoon. "We'll have a new number and I imagine it will be quite a bit higher, because we did have a lot of action up here today," Semple said. Helicopters continued to work the fire Friday, but it was too volatile and windy for ground crews to do much other than work with evacuating homeowners. The other fires in the drainage Fisher Point and Sawmill have burned 1,130 and 760 acres, respectively, although those numbers are likely low, too, Semple said.

Like fire officials everywhere, Semple was hoping that the weather gurus are right that the wind will die down and the temperatures will follow. "We can hope, and sometimes that's all you can do," she said. Firefighters working the giant Ahorn fire west of Augusta on the Rocky Mountain Front put their faith in explosives on Friday, using fire-line explosives -FLEs in firefighter jargon to blow up more than a mile of fire line in the Sawtooth Ridge area along the fire's east edge. "They use them to tie the lines into rock formations and roads in the area," said information officer John Seeley Lake district ranger. The fire started on tribal land, but moved onto state land and may have also made its way to federal land, said Jamie Kirby, fire prevention specialist for the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

"It's not a good day, I'd say," Kirby noted. Although lots of fires were up and running on Friday, some are still far from homes and structures. Fires like the large Fool Creek fire, the medium-sized Conger Creek blaze and the relatively small Rombo Mountain fire are mostly wilderness fires and aren't getting a wealth of attention. Rock Creek is another story, however. The Wyman 2 fire has burned within a quarter-mile of homes in upper Rock Creek, and firefighters were focused on helping homeowners created "survivable" spaces around their homes.

Semple said should worse come to worst, crews will keep the houses and grounds wet as fire approaches, but will not stand and fight if fire rolls through. "They are not going to defend these houses if the fire gets all the way in there," she said. "They can't. It's too dangerous. We've got a lot of people concerned up here today, but there's been a lot of work near the houses." That came as harsh news to some out-of-state homeowners, but Semple, like other fire officials, said no Polishing Kit Buffer 7" angle grinder (BFLAP7UL) with additional Buffing Kit (BSTP2) Both for only $gg99 Graves said that overall, Third isn't too bad.

He has more trouble with Russell. During the busiest times of the day, Graves said, "I do avoid Russell." Sandgren said a long line near the bridge makes a left-hand turn from Red's onto Russell nearly impossible at rush hour. He also volunteered that he doesn't like the idea for a roundabout at the intersection of Third and Russell. "Why would they want to do something as stupid as that? It's bad enough now with the light," Sandgren said. the road will need to carry even more people if a housing project comes to the old Intermountain Lumber site, and more planned housing gets built at the former Liberty Lanes.

King said the required EIS will cost roughly $3 million. Public comment will be sought on the draft environmental statement, although that hasn't been scheduled. Reporter Keila Szpallercan be reached at 523-5262 or at Keila.Szpallermissoulian.com. HI SMiE vr evacuation, and deputies from both Granite County and Missoula County were working to get people out of the homes affected by the Sawmill fire. The Wyman 2 fire had only burned about 2,400 acres as of late Thursday, but it took off in the afternoon, propelled by winds that arrived with a cool front that's expected to lower high temperatures into the 80s.

That would be welcome relief, but the wind was not. "Well, it was some pretty serious wind," said information officer Karen Scmplc. "It was a hectic day up here. But the evacuations have been pretty orderly." The wind did clear some smoke out of the Missoula Valley, enough so that the Missoula City-County Health Department called off the Stage 1 air alert that had been in place. Otherwise, the wind dealt fircfighting efforts a nasty blow Friday.

The Chippy Creek fire northeast of Thompson Falls exploded, more than doubling in size and scorching 10,000 new acres Friday. That fire had burned about 8,000 acres through Thursday, but has now blacked more than 18,000 acres. "It's putting on quite a show right now," said Intersection Continued "In all probability, it's not carrying the amount of traffic that needs to be accommodated," he said. Childers said one goal of the EIS is to determine whether Russell Street should expand to handle more traffic. He said the plan generally covers Russell from the Clark Fork River to South 14th Street, and Third from Russell, to Reserve.

Childers occasionally hears from people about the project, and they give mixed opinions. "Some of them want the project to be under way and expanded and carry more traffic. And some of them want the EIS to be finished and a decision to be made that the road will not be expanded and will, in fact, remain a two-lane road," he said. On Friday, news of the delay didn't come as a shock or complete disappointment to everyone who travels those roads. Steve Graves, who works just off Third Street, said he trusts city officials to manage the project and prioritize.

"If this one gets pushed back, I don't see it as a real critical issue," Graves said. Dave Sandgren, who works at Red's Towing and Crane, said traffic piles up on Russell near the Clark Fork. "It's terrible," he said. By and large, though, he docs not have kind words for the folks at City Hall, and seemed resigned to the delay. Childers warned that the wait would indeed be long and the work costly: "They (citizens) need to know that it's going to take a long time before anything happens.

And when something docs finally happen, I'm not real sure that there's going to be money to do it." In the meantime, Public Works is completing small improvements in the neighborhood. King said a new i i i njirirtmiifliiiiiiii''iinNi'iM UnlLrrjitedJHoiirs, No Contracts! $93B FREE 247 Technical Support Instant Messaging keep your buddy list! 10 e-mail addresses with Webmaill Custom Start Page news, weather morel vo Surf up to 6X faster! just 3 mora Sign Up Onllnel www.LocalNet.com Call Today Save! LocalNef rll-OD4l Portable Generator 2000 surge watts, 2.4 HP, 1500 running watts Convenient and compact design Ideal for Hunters, Campers or a power failure Run time up to 9 hours at 50 load aaWh GEN 154 771771 mm crosswalk will stretch across Third Street near Catlin. "That'll be done in just a few days, actually," King said. That's near Graves' office, and he said many people cross Russell on foot at that intersection. He estimated that 50 people walk across the busy road on their way to the grocery store or the Laundromat every day.

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