Lake Mary Ronan reopens as Elmo Fire withers
A scooper plane dips into Flathead Lake while providing water drops for the Elmo 2 Fire on the Flathead Reservation. (Rob Zolman/Lake County Leader)
Lake Mary Ronan State Park and its access road reopened to traffic Aug. 10 as crews expanded containment of the Elmo 2 Fire.
The fire west of Flathead Lake showed no new growth last week, with total acres burned since the blaze began estimated at just over 21,300.
During a public fire update meeting last week at the Elmo Pow Wow Grounds, Northern Rockies Incident Management Team 7 commander John Thompson expressed hopefulness that his team would have around 90% fire containment by the week's end.
“We are glad things are getting better, every day we are getting closer to containment,” explained Thompson. “We have been very blessed to have gotten a lot of firefighting resources to help us and we have gotten some great changes in the weather when we have needed it.”
On Sunday, command of the Elmo Fire transitioned to a Type 3 team.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks staff consulted with Thompson on Tuesday and jointly determined it was safe to reopen the state park and resume normal operations at the site, including camping.
Fire activity is mostly confined to the north flank at Lake Mary Ronan, where a spot fire cropped up last Tuesday.
Total cost to fight the fire since it began July 29 was estimate at more than $13 million.
The public can continue to find information on the Elmo fire from calling the fire information line, sending an email, or checking Inciweb and Facebook.