Fire danger raised to very high
MINERAL COUNTY – The fire danger status in Mineral County was raised to very high last week and officials are considering enacting Stage 1 Fire Restrictions as early as this week.
With little precipitation in the past few weeks and temperatures soaring over 100 degrees for several days in a row, Forest Service officials said conditions warranted an elevated status of fire danger. Fire Management Officer Jim Ward said the weather is not predicted to cool off or bring any substantial amount of rain.
“If the weather doesn’t change, we could be at Stage 1 restrictions by next Wednesday night,” Ward said. “It’s supposed to stay warm and dry.”
Ward said if conditions don’t change, which they aren’t predicted to do anytime soon, Mineral County could be at the highest end of the fire danger spectrum.
“If we don’t have any precipitation with these storms we could be raising it to extreme fire danger in a week,” Ward said. “People need to be aware of what they are doing and where they are doing it. Just use common sense. We just don’t want people to take anything for granted.”
According to information supplied to county commissioners from Ward on Thursday, July 31, very high fire danger is characterized as a condition where fires cannot only easily start, but spread rapidly and increase in intensity quickly.
Mineral County Commissioner Duane Simons said the combination of the weather and the conditions in the forest are ripe for a significant fire event. Simons said the forest floor is littered with fuels ready to burn.
“People need to be aware that is very dry out there,” Simons said. “Especially in our heavily wooded areas, we have tremendous fuel loads. If a fire starts and has a little wind, it’s going to be very hard to stop.”
Simons, who has extensive experience in the logging business, said because of the cyclical nature of tree growth and because of a historical event in the county over a hundred years ago, parts of the Lolo National Forest are covered with a layer of dead trees.
“Lodgepole pine around here is a hundred year tree,” Simons said. “Typically, it will grow one hundred years, then it will die and fall over. That’s the cycle. Well, a hundred years ago was the 1910 fire so everything we have here now that’s lodgepole is about a hundred years old and right at the point of dying.”
Stage 1 Fire Restrictions, which could be implemented this week, include a prohibition on campfires and other fires except in designated sites.
Liquid petroleum and propane gas stoves that can be turned off are allowed.
Smoking is prohibited outside of vehicles, buildings and developed recreation sites unless there is a three-foot diameter area cleared around the smoker of burnable material.
Designated sites approved for campfires even during Stage 1 Restrictions include campsites at East and West Quartz, Trout Creek, Sloway, Cabin City, Missoula Lake, Moore Lake, Diamond Lake and Little Joe Campgrounds.
Campfires are only allowed in campfire rings made of either concrete, metal culvert or iron grate type rings. Fires cannot exceed three feet wide or high.
The Forest Service does not approve fire rings constructed of rocks.