The fire watch begins

SANDERS COUNTY - From down below in the valley, as you drive along Highway 200 heading from Plains to Thompson Falls, if you stop along side the road you may be able to peer up to the top of Eddy Mountain and see a tiny glimmer of light. At approximately 7,000 feet  there sits a small tower. Looking out across the valleys and mountains is a man whose job it is to watch for damaging fires.

Craig Phillips, a Forest Service worker, calls the top of Eddy Mountain home during the height of fire season, staying in a four-sided lookout tower. For upwards of five or six days a week, his job is to be ever vigilant for smoke and fires as far as the eye can see.

“I just enjoy the solitude, I enjoy the views and it’s a challenge sometimes,” Phillips says.

To reach the top of the mountain to the lookout tower, the route is roughly an hour’s worth of driving up a dirt road that takes many twists and turns. The tower itself is a four sided room with a small bed, propane stove, some drawers, a desk and in the center a radio next to a viewing tool known as an Osborne Fire Finder. Phillips has to bring up his own water. His outhouse is 100 yards away along the trail that leads to his little parking lot.

With the Osborne Fire Finder, Phillips says, “I sight where the fire is and I can give them an azimuth, which is a line from my lookout to the fire and I’ll then call in the range and township and the section down to the quarter section if I can see the base.”

This will be Phillips’ 10th year posting as a tower watch and his 9th year in the Eddy Lookout Tower and as a seasoned professional who in his free time also hunts and fishes the region, he has become very knowledgeable of the area’s many landmarks. He has even given a descendant of President Theodore Roosevelt, Tweed Roosevelt, tours of the region. At any given moment, he can point out any mountain, gulch or valley. He uses binoculars and a spotting scope, but he says that before using any of those tools he uses his eyes more than anything else.

“I know the ridges and the little canyons and everything good enough that if I can see the base, I can give a really good regal on it,” Phillips said.

His job description asks him to not just be vigilant for wild land fires, but as an intermediary for radio calls when signals are week, to help monitor weather conditions and other possible dangers for firefighters as they contain a fire. In the morning and evening he takes weather readings, records them and also marks down any calls or radio calls to him.

“If I see a storm coming, like a lightning storm, it’s my job to warn them about hazardous down strikes or a really powerful wind or rain storm,” Phillips said. He himself must also be vigilant about storms for his own safety. His tower if often struck by lightning, and when he is in the direct path of a storm, to stay safe he has to sit on a wooden chair and stool with glass insulators on the bottoms.

Though he is on call 24 hours a day, he is on the clock 10 to 12 hours a day. During that time he must be constantly watching for smoke. In the evening if there isn’t a fire and the sun has set, Phillips draws and paints, which is his other means of income. He paints forest scenes and has done bronze casting. Laid out on his desk next to his maps and scopes, you can either find a drawing or a painting. He also feeds the ground squirrels, watches the bears and welcomes tourists who visit the lookout tower.

Phillips has only been on top of the mountain for a little over a week and he will be up there for quite a while to come.