Crews make progress on Garceau Fire

By Ethan Smith

Leader Staff

The Garceau Fire is now at 50 percent containment, following a weekend characterized by aggressive retardant and water drops, but more hot weather will keep fire crews wary as Stage II fire restrictions remain in effect throughout the reservation.

The fire apparently started last Tuesday, July 24, after a brief lightning storm that Monday night ignited timber on Tribal land and dry grass in nearby farm fields, all located in the Buffalo Bridge area about 11 miles west of Polson.

Carl Moss said he stood and watched Tuesday as the fire grew and spread down the hill toward his home and farm, burning some of his pasture land and land he rents from neighbors Dave and Sue Nash.

“It was humbling to see it come down that hill,” he said of the fire.

But local fire crews from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, working with Polson and Ronan firefighters, made the initial attack last Tuesday, and helped ensure area homes were protected, even as the fire jumped to 2,000 acres that day. Two homes had to be evacuated, but so far, no homes have been lost.

“They knew what they had to do and they did it,” Moss said of the structure protection measures put into place around his home and his neighbors’.

“The local district did a great job — they got line all around it,” said Greg Dawson, division supervisor for the Type II Northern Rockies Incident Management Team brought in to fight the fire.

Moss said he wasn’t too surprised that a fire started, given the lightning show he saw the night before.

“There were lots of strikes in here,” he said

Moss was hosting a family reunion last weekend, which included his 10 children and 30 grandchildren, all chatting and catching up, as planes dropped retardant and water over Tribal timber land above his property.

In addition to the Moss and Nash homes, about 20 other homes are affected by the fire, but fire officials said risk of structure loss is low after they reduced fuels around those homes and implemented other structure protection measures, including dropping retardant around nearby property lines, creating a buffer zone.

The focus is on firefighter safety first, Dawson said, as crews work in high-risk areas, including steep timber land surrounded by meadows of dry grass. Last weekend’s fire activity was characterized by extreme fire behavior, as crews saw plenty of torching and spotting in the treetops. However, crews were relieved that, despite the hot, dry weather, they were able to halt the fire’s growth this week, for the time being.

The fire is listed at slightly more than 3,000 acres, and while crews were aided by retardant and water drops last weekend, the terrain they are working in — timber stands in steep terrain — is making it a challenge, fire officials said. However, they said they’re trying their best to save as much timber as possible, since it’s both an economic, and in some cases a cultural, factor for the Tribes.

“If we can do it safely, we’ll save as much timber as we can,” Dawson said. “Safety is highest priority.”

The Type II team, under incident commander Roger Kechter, took over last Thursday, July 26, and includes about 300 firefighters, including six 20-man crews, two Hot Shot crews, 19 engines, six dozers, 10 water tenders and one helicopter. While the Type II team includes firefighters from Montana, Minnesota and as far away as Rhode Island, they are being aided by tribal fire crews from reservations all over Montana.

Local firefighters include two CSKT crews, but also crews from Ft. Belknap, Rocky Boy and Blackfeet reservations. Because much of the fire is located on Tribal timber land, all fire crews have been briefed on identifying and protecting culturally significant areas in those lands — including protecting those areas from firefighting activity, public information officer Jill Cobb said.

While loss of land due to fire is part of nature’s cycle, fire crews have been instructed to not damage culturally significant sites with fire suppression efforts, Cobb said. Those sites include cairns, or stacked rock clusters, and prayer bundles, for example, and firefighters have been instructed to watch for those as they go about their business.

“They [the tribes] aren’t worried about natural processes, they are worried about unnatural ones,” she said.

Local crews get into the thick of it

Two Ronan-area crews are stationed on the fire, and are more than halfway through their 14-day “on,” two-day “off” work schedule. They’re working right in the heart of some extreme fire conditions, and safety is their top priority.

“Very unsafe, a fire like this. It can blow over you,” said Bruce Plouffe, Sr., a squad boss with one of the local crews.

Plouffe, a former Hot Shot, has been working as a firefighter off and on for almost 20 years. He said he left the business a few years ago, but that other work just didn’t satisfy him as much.

“Got out of it, came back. Miss the excitement,” he said.

Plouffe and his team members spent much of last week doing mop-up work, in which they travel preexisting line and burned areas, and ensure the fire is 100 percent, dead out.

It involves turning over moss, burned brush and other debris to ensure there’s no smoldering embers that could flare up after crews leave the area. Firefighters travel the line and black areas, literally holding their hands over the ground to feel for any radiant heat that might indicate a potential hot spot.

“And when they’re done, that means everything is out, 100 percent, in the area they’ve been working in,” Dawson said.

The CSKT crew includes several students from the Job Corps, who are getting good firefighting experience while learning from more senior firefighters like Plouffe — job skills that can lead to lucrative paychecks during the summer fire seasons to come.

“A good learning experience for them,” Plouffe said.

For Plouffe and his crew, they heat doesn’t just mean the potential for extreme fire behavior, but also dehydration and heat-related illness. So far, only a few firefighters have had to be treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration, along with blisters and other minor injuries, but just keeping firefighters hydrated in terrain like that is a full-time job itself, fire officials noted.

Plouffe said the crew packs in a gallon of water each to their work site each morning, but by noon they need a refill.

“We’re filling up constantly, all day. We go through a lot of fluids up here,” he said.

The firefighters start their workday early, and work until as late as 8 p.m. or so before being transported down to camp at the Polson fairgrounds. However, the Hot Shot crews have slept near the fire area in order to get a jump on suppression efforts early the next morning. It’s an effective, but potentially dangerous, way to fight a fire.

Because of the extreme fire behavior, spotters are positioned in key locations to communicate with crews, identifying any potential danger zones, while keeping them apprised of escape routes, Dawson and Plouffe explained.

“We’ve got eyes all over us,” Plouffe said, referring to the spotters on the ground and in aircraft above them.

For the Ronan crews, this is the third fire they’ve been called out to this summer. They’ve fought fires in Dixon and Elmo, too, and are proud to be able to work in and help their communities, Plouffe said, noting that on this fire, they’re helping to protect an economic resource, too — Tribal-owned timber.

Through it all, they want to help contain the fire, but staying safe is still the main goal, Plouffe noted.

“Safety is our number one priority,” he said. “Nobody wants to be packed off this mountain.”

Residents urged to respect fire restrictions

Stage II fire restrictions are still in place, which prohibit open flames or campfires. Smoking is restricted to buildings, vehicles, and areas that don’t have vegetation. Operating vehicles off-road is prohibited, and outdoor industrial operations are only permitted from 1 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Firefighter safety is important, but Garceau fire officials want local residents to be safe, too. Their asking residents to use caution when traveling in the Buffalo Bridge area, and on Buffalo Bridge Road. Use headlights, and try to avoid routes used by firefighting crews, as it can slow them down.

Also, the public is asked to be careful at the intersection of the fairgrounds and Highway 93, where a temporary stoplight has been set up to help control traffic north of the Polson bridge.

For more information, folks can go to www.inciweb.org/incident/882

Statewide, agency updates on fire information are now available in one central location at www.mt.gov under Montana Fire Conditions.

As of Tuesday morning, Montana has 14 active fires totaling about 96,000 acres burned.