LAKESIDE – Firefighters were aggressively attacking the Stoner Creek fire on Monday, Aug. 19 as the 2013 wildfire season arrived in the Flathead Valley. The Stoner Creek fire started on Aug. 18 along Blacktail Road in Lakeside and is one of three active fires in the area.
The fire had burned 100 acres by Monday afternoon and was a quarter mile away from structures, according to Flathead National Forest Public Information Officer Wade Muehlhof. No evacuations had been issued by Monday evening.
“The goal is to throw everything we have at it, but the problem is we’re competing for a lot of the resources because there are so many fires in the region,” Muehlhof said.
The fire started on land owned by Plum Creek Timber Co. and managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Firefighters were quickly trying to suppress the fire on Monday afternoon, with concerns that hot weather, dry fuel conditions and unpredictable winds would cause the fire to blow up.
“It really depends on what the weather does to the fire,” Muehlhof said. “This afternoon and this evening will be a big challenge.”
On Monday, 70 firefighters, seven engines, one bulldozer and three helicopters were working the fire in the hills just west of Lakeside. Although Blacktail Road was not officially closed, a Flathead County sheriff’s deputy was blocking the upper portions of the road and only letting local homeowners past.
The cause of the fire was still under investigation on Monday afternoon.
The Stoner Creek fire is one of three active fires being managed by the Flathead National Forest. The Damnation Fire was started by lightning on Aug. 11 and is located inside the Bob Marshall Wilderness, about 21 miles southeast of Swan Lake. As of Monday, it had burned 2,242 acres. The fire had caused some trail closures in the area, but for the most part was being allowed to burn and play its natural role in the wilderness.
A few miles west, the lightning-caused Snow Creek fire had burned 38 acres inside the wilderness. Like the Damnation Fire, the Snow Creek blaze was being allowed to burn, but firefighters were working on protecting structures, including cabins, barns and a bridge at Black Bear.
On Sunday afternoon, local firefighters quickly doused a 30-acre grain field fire near Creston, according to Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Fire Prevention Specialist Ali Ulwelling. The cause of that fire is under investigation. Ulwelling said it’s a reminder that the public should remain vigilant in the coming days as hot and dry weather persists.
“It’s hot and dry and we’ve been lucky up here so far,” she said. “Most of the starts we’ve had have been human caused; campfires running away and equipment in fields.”
For up-to-date information on wildfires in the Flathead Valley and Northwest Montana, visit www.flatheadbeacon.com or www.inciweb.org.