Fire update
Liberty fire now over 3,600 acres
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
A fire burning 17 miles southeast of Arlee in Missoula County had grown to 3,652 acres as of Thursday night, Aug. 3.
Kristen Allison, a public information officer with the California Interagency Incident Management Team No. 1 that set up at the Arlee Powwow Grounds on Monday night, said 363 firefighters from across the nation were fighting the Liberty fire, including some from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
The fire, which was started by lightning on July 15, was 12 percent contained by Thursday night, she said.
South Lake County around the Arlee area has been having unhealthy air quality levels in the morning, according to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s air quality meteorologist Kristen Martin. The air quality improves to moderate by afternoon.
She recommends those who are more susceptible to unhealthy air, such as children, the elderly and those with respiratory diseases, limit their outdoor morning activities. One may want to postpone outdoor activities to the afternoon or evening, she said.
The morning smoke is primarily coming from the Liberty fire, but haze in the afternoon or evening may include smoke from other fires in the area, such as the Sunrise fire in Mineral County.
Allison said her 54-person team is one of 16 such Type I interagency incident management teams that are part of a rotation that respond to fires as needed.
Multiple agencies make up the team, she said, including employees from the U.S. Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and local and state agencies in California.
Allison noted that the South and Middle Fork Jocko River roads are closed to the public.
No evacuation orders have been made, although the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department earlier issued an evacuation warning for the Placid Lake community south of Seeley Lake.
That fire, which is located north and west of Hidden Lake, started on CSKT land and has spread to the Lolo National Forest, Nature Conservancy and private lands.
Up-to-date information about the fire can be obtained at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5437/
