Helitack crews attack Crow Canyon, Wild Horse fires
(Linda Sappington/Leader)<br>Ronan Volunteer firefighters, including Josh Molzhon, practiced structure fire skills last Thursday as they burned an abandoned house in town to the ground. With the onset of summer heat, firefighters are prepared and poised in locations throughout the Mission Valley.
A Helitack crew contracted through the Division of Fire for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes responded Monday morning to a lightning-caused wildland fire high in the Mission Mountains south of North Crow Canyon. The North Crow fire burned only one-tenth of an acre as a crew of five firefighters were flown by helicopter to the site to fight the flames, aided by the helicopter's water bucket.
A man-caused fire on less than an acre of scattered pine and grass on Wild Horse Island was quickly extinguished Friday afternoon by two helitack crews.
Seven tribal firefighters stayed overnight on the wildlife refuge to make sure the fire did not flare up.
Polson fire department also responded with their fireboat.
"The fire was definitely man caused, and if we can find out who did it, they will pay the cost of fighting the fire," Curtiss Matt, a fire prevention specialist with the Division of Fire said.
The cost could run at least $8,000 or more.
Tribal firefighters also responded to a fire last Saturday along Highway 28, four miles west of Elmo. With the cooperation of the Elmo VFD, only about one acre burned. "It's very dry," Matt said.
Nearby in Niarada, Hot Springs volunteer fire department responded to a baler fire Monday morning, and tribal fire crews extinguished a grass fire Saturday evening at the scene of a party on 100 Road in St. Ignatius.
Always staying prepared, Ronan volunteer firefighters practiced extinguishing a structure fire Thursday evening in an abandoned house located in the heart of the residential housing in Ronan.
Smoke lingering in the Mission Valley during the earlier part of the week was not from local fires, explained Matt, but mostly from a large fire burning in Chelan, Wash., and other smaller fires in the Western U.S. and Canada. An advancing weather front helped push the smoke toward Montana.