Incident: Skyland
Released: 8/29/2007
***THIS WILL BE THE LAST DAILY UPDATE FROM THE HEINTZ INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM.***
DAILY INFORMATION ABOUT THE FIRE WILL CONTINUE FROM THE NEW ORGANIZATION AND THE JIC LOCATED IN CHOTEAU. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY TO OUR TEAM DURING OUR SHORT STAY
Yesterday's Activities:
Quick Fire Facts | |
Location | 32 miles ESE of Kalispell, MT-Skyland Road, 3 miles south of Marias Pass |
Approximate Size | 45,760 acres |
Increase since last update | None |
Fire Containment | 75% |
Start Date | July 23, 2007 - 4:30 pm |
Cause | Lightning |
Incident Commander | Tom Heintz |
Resources on the Fire | 6 crews 1 helicopter 1 dozer 2 water tenders 7 engines |
Total Personnel | 313 |
Est. Containment Date | unknown |
Cooperating Agencies | USFS NPS BIA Blackfeet Tribe Montana DNRC |
Landowners | USFS Blackfeet Tribe Private |
Crews continued to grid for spots, finding hot areas in stumps and standing tree root systems. They completed the back-haul of equipment and continued work on rehabilitation assignments. Isolated single tree torching was seen; however, the burning was on the interior of the fire perimeter with no fire area increase. Planning continued for the transition of the fire to an incoming Type 3 Team.
Weather and Fire Behavior Forecast for Today:
The warming and drying trend is expected to continue today. Temperatures in the 75-80 degree range may be seen in the lower elevations of the fire with cooler temperatures at higher elevations. Relative humidity will be drier at 15-20% with winds of 5-15 mph. These conditions will most likely produce more active fire behavior in the afternoon than has been seen recently.
Today's Planned Actions:
Cost to date of the fire is $17,560,000.
Crews will continue to patrol, mop-up and perform rehabilitation activities throughout the fire area. Cutting of hazardous trees along roadways will be done where needed for safety reasons before the roads can be returned to prior access.
Cowboys will ride in again today to finish rounding up and moving out the rest of the cattle grazing in the Badger Creek area.
Incoming Type 3 Team members will shadow their counterparts on the Heintz Type 2 Team throughout the day.
U.S. Hwy 2 remains open with a speed restriction in the fire area. All entrances to the Glacier National Park are open. Visit www.nps.gov/glac for more information.
Stage 2 fire restrictions are in effect for the area. For fire restrictions, visit www.mt.blm.gov/fire/restrictions. Much of the Rocky Mountain Ranger District is closed to public use. There are closures in the Hungry Horse Ranger District as well.
Visit http://www.inciweb.org/ and click on Skyland Fire for details, or call the ranger districts - Hungry Horse (406) 387-3800; Rocky Mountain (406) 466-5341.
