Strategy for Fool Creek Fire, 8/4
Incident: Fool Creek Wildland Fire Used for Resource Benefit
Released: 8/4/2007
Choteau, Mont., Aug. 4, 2007--Dave Larsen, the incident commander for the Fool Creek fire, outlined the strategy for dealing with the blaze west of Choteau.
"We have plentiful natural barriers that ought to help us," Larsen said. "The geology can work to our advantage."
He referred to the series of north-south rock reefs that lie east of the fire. Larsen said topography has already slowed the fire's spread east even as west winds pushed on the blaze on Friday.
"We are also attacking the fire's perimeter. Right now that's all with helicopters, dropping water on key areas. By this afternoon we will add retardant to our arsenal," he said.
Larsen said retardant, which doesn't evaporate as fast as water, will be used where it will do the most good.
"In a saddle, a low spot on a rocky ridge where the fire might follow vegetation over the ridge, for example, we could use retardant to hold the fire off," he said.
Firefighters on the ground meantime have focused on "point protection," which means getting buildings ready to withstand fire with sprinklers, by clearing nearby vegetation, and other measures.
Meantime, contingency plans are in place for lands inside the Lewis & Clark National Forest that lie in the fire's potential path. The plans provide a menu of steps fire managers might take when the fire reaches certain places.
And planning is underway for steps to take should the fire advance another seven miles and come onto private land.
"Over the next few days we're going to be talking with landowners next to the forest to develop our tactical options," Larsen said. "That way we'll be ready, have the right equipment in place, have folks in agreement on tactics, and so on, should the fire get that far," he said.
Larsen said that with east winds forecast starting Sunday and given the topography it wasn't likely that the Fool Creek fire would make a dramatic run east in the next few days.
"As the fire does move east it gets more accessible for on-the-ground firefighters. It will enter areas with roads where we can bring engines to work on the fire, and take advantage of old timber harvest units. Firefighting is about patience and picking your battles. We don't want to just throw resources at the fire if there's no chance of success. That's expensive and puts firefighters in danger unnecessarily," Larsen said.
"So, as the 'values at risk' increase, so will the level of intensity of our response," he said.
