"You've got to take it one bite at a time," said Virginia Gibbons, the fire's beleaguered information officer.
On Tuesday afternoon, Gibbons had to drive into Seeley Lake to use the telephone, as the fire camp still had no phone. But away from camp, she didn't know what was happening on the fire.
Seeley Lake District Ranger Tim Love had a bit more information. Fire bosses have combined more than a dozen fires into one complex called Boles Meadow/Rattlesnake. Of those fires, Boles Meadow is the top priority, as it has the greatest potential to affect campgrounds and homes at Placid Lake - and, ultimately, Seeley Lake.
On Sunday, the fire ran in almost every direction. "Eighty percent of the perimeter was active," Love said. "It was running northwest, then northeast, then to the southeast."
"People in Seeley Lake were hitting the panic button," he said. "There was ash falling on town, and it was so smoky you couldn't tell where the fire was or how fast it was moving."
By Tuesday night, the Boles Meadow fire had burned about 4,000 acres southwest of Placid Lake, south of the Jocko Road cut-across. The fire remains active along the Reservation Divide and has burned into the Jocko Primitive Area.
"It's not an easy fire," Love said. "It's in some thick timber, so there is lots of fuel. We've got a long ways to go with this one."
The nearest homes to the fire are about five miles away at Placid Lake.
Firefighters and equipment have been hard to come by, a refrain heard at all of the fires burning in and around the Lolo National Forest this week. "We've got more equipment than anything right now," Love said. "Now we need more crews."
The management team overseeing Boles Meadow also has responsibility for a number of fires burning in the Rattlesnake Wilderness north of Missoula. As many as 10 fires may be burning across 4,000 acres in the Rattlesnake.
Firefighters still don't have accurate maps of the wilderness fires, which are a lower priority because they are remote. The largest of the fires is on Stuart Peak and covers about 3,000 acres.
"That will be a complete air show in the wilderness," Love said. "They'll probably put a spike camp up in the Rattlesnake somewhere, and have firefighters work out of there."
The Stuart Peak fire is burning in an easterly direction, and is about eight air miles from the Boles Meadow fire.
Elsewhere in and around the Lolo forest, these reports came Tuesday from some of the wildfires:
- Fish Creek: Two large wildfires have burned together in the upper end of the Fish Creek drainage, creating the 5,000-acre Thompson Creek fire. Because of the aggressive burning, Missoula County has issued an evacuation request for the upper end of Fish Creek.
Two families were evacuated Tuesday, as was a small sawmill operation.
Also burning in the drainage is the 500-acre Fish Creek fire, which firefighters hope will not burn into the Thompson Creek fire. About 150 people are assigned to those fires, which are part of a complex of eight wildfires being managed by one incident command team.
Public meetings are planned at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Alberton Elementary, then at 7 p.m. Thursday at St. Regis Elementary School. - North Fork Howard: A fire management team from northern Idaho has been given responsibility for the North Howard complex of fires burning 16 miles west of Missoula. The fire has burned about 1,200 acres, and private property in the Petty Creek and Graves Creek areas will be at risk if the weather worsens or firefighting resources do not increase soon.
"More hand crews, specialized fire managers and helicopters are all badly needed," the fire's command team said in a written statement Tuesday. About 175 people are assigned to the fire, including six crews of firefighters.
A separate fire burning in the upper end of Petty Creek - but being managed with the North Howard fire - prompted an evacuation alert for the drainage Tuesday. That fire has burned 300 acres. - Dirty Ike: About 2,000 acres have burned in an area north and northeast of Clinton. An incident management team arrived Tuesday. There continues to be virtually no information available about that fire, which is also of concern to homeowners in the Potomac area.
Three new fires were spotted on the Lolo Forest Tuesday, said Sharon Sweeney, the forest's public information officer. "Since this siege began, we've had about 150 fires on the Lolo. And there is the potential for more dry thunderstorms on Wednesday."
As each new fire management team arrives in the area, Sweeney said, they are warned to be extremely cautious, as the fire behavior "has been and will be very aggressive."
"Our largest fuels out in the woods, the big logs, are drier than kiln-dried lumber," she said. "They are at 9 percent moisture. So we're telling teams to stay behind the fires and build good, solid lines."
Of great concern is a cold front that could hit the area late Thursday or Friday, brining with it erratic and gusty winds, Sweeney said. "Cold fronts are usually a watchout situation for firefighters. They're almost never a good thing."
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com
For more information
The U.S. Forest Service has established a toll-free number for fire information updates: 1-800-781-2811. Information officers will take calls from
6 a.m. to midnight - and if conditions worsen, they'll be on duty 24 hours a day.
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