Wet weekend helps smother fires
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A wildland fire burned about 714 acres off of Highway 211 — the gravel road connecting Ronan with Hot Springs — over the weekend, but there were no active fires on the Flathead Reservation as of Monday.
“We got a little bit of moisture on the ground, as you can see,” Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes fire information officer Curtiss Matt said. “But I think it’s still fire season.”
Three fires started Aug. 26: one on Highway 211 about five miles west of Sloan’s Bridge, one about two miles west of the Perma Store on Highway 200, and one in the Jocko Canyon area.
The causes of all three fires are under investigation, Matt said, and all have been downgraded to patrol or drive-by status.
After the CSKT Division of Fire was alerted to a fire on Highway 211 Friday morning, three crews with engines and tractors and a SEAT plane fought the blaze into Sunday morning. Matt said maneuvering in the steep, rugged terrain was tough, and firefighters spotted three or four rattlesnakes in the area. The fire burned more than 700 acres of sage brush, timber and grass, he added.
“As of today, we’ve just got patrol on it,” Matt said Monday. “It rained Sunday, so we cut the crews loose at noon.”
Another fire near Perma burned seven acres between the railroad and the Flathead River before it was put out with the help of Hot Springs and Dixon Fire Departments, Matt added. The Jocko Canyon fire only grew to one-fourth of an acre before it was extinguished.
