Pattengail Creek Fire Update, Saturday, July 28th
Incident: Pattengail Creek Wildland Fire
Released: 7/28/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jon Kohn, Information Officer
Date: Saturday, July 28th, 2007 Phone: 406-832-3178 (Wise River District)
Fire Start: July 13, 2007 Cause: Lightning
Total Acres: 4,256 acres Containment: 25 percent
Location: 10 miles northeast of Wisdom, in the Pioneer Mountains, about 40 miles southwest of Butte, Montana
The Pattengail Creek fire showed 3-foot flames in dead logs on the ground, Friday. Scattered smokes rose from green forest as the fire continued to creep raggedly beneath dense lodgepole pine and subalpine fir stands in the high country of the west Pioneers.
The fire is in a remote rugged location with no escape routes and no natural fuel breaks. Because of the unsafe location and intense national need for resources, the team is developing plans to respond to the fire when and where it can be fought safely.
Friday and Saturday, squads are working with homeowners in Grouse Creek, Harriet Lou Creek, and Alder Creek, moving woodpiles and clearing around homes, while identifying needs for resources such as pumps, hoses and sprinklers for structures. Crews are mapping drainages in Bryant Creek, finding fuelbreaks where tactics such as dozers and burnouts may check the fire.
Helicopters are dropping water strategically, which is slowing the hottest spots in the fire, and reconning lines where the fire might be delayed using rock slopes and past harvested areas at the front of the fire. Managers are on the ground preparing specific responses to the fire's growth past management action points.
Weather: Humidity only rose to 44% Friday night on the fire, compared to a normal overnight humidity recovery of about 70%. High temperatures reach the mid-80's, with humidities in the mid-teens, 5 to 15 mph west winds, and isolated thunderstorms. Dry air returns Sunday, with a chance of thunderstorms.
Public Meeting: On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Wise River Community Hall, the Incident Commander will brief the audience on fire behavior, operations, and weather. The team will introduce, and demonstrate outdoors, the use of cabin wrap and Barricade® gel.
The audience and fire managers will then split into small groups based on neighborhoods. Long-term planners have mapped separate areas in the community that may be affected. Each group will share specifics and strategies that may help defend structures in that neighborhood.
For three days, the fire has remained about two miles above management action points high in the Shaw Creek and Pettengill Creek drainages. If the Pattengail fire reaches a management action point, responses will vary based on current and forecasted weather, but more resources will be enroute from other fires and agencies. No structures are considered threatened at this time, and no evacuations have been ordered. Structure protection efforts are only precautionary.
The fire's acreage figure (4,256 acres) has not changed in four days, because rain dampened it Tuesday enough to temporarily stop it from making big runs. The fire edge is eight miles from structures in Grouse Creek.
Fire Restrictions and Closures: Stage 2 fire restrictions are in place on public lands in southwest Montana. For public safety, the north end of the west Pioneer Mountains has an Area Closure.
Check http://www.inciweb.org/ or www.fs.fed.us/r1/bdnf/ for more detailed information.
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