County hopes for best, braces for worst

SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners declared a local disaster emergency Friday as firefighters grappled with the Tower and Clark Fork Complex wildfires.

 “We did it more as a precaution than anything, to kind of give a heads-up in case things turn to the worse,” said Commission Chairman Cary Kelly.

The declaration will help reimburse the county for costs it incurs as a result of the wildfires. It also eases the bidding requirements for work related to the blazes.

The declaration has no bearing on the federal or state resources that may be needed to actually battle the wildfires, however.

The incident commander of the Tower Fire south of Priest Lake requested that the county set up roadblocks on a half-dozen roads west of Highway 57 to discourage any weekend traffic that is not local.

“They just don’t want to get campers and tourists up there,” said Kelly.

The lightning-caused Tower Fire began burning on the Pend Oreille Divide on Aug. 11. The fire has grown to 9,180 acres by Friday and was 2-percent contained.

The fire is burning in timber with grass understory and logging slash. It has show signs of active backing, single-tree torching and creeping, according to an update posted to InciWeb, a clearinghouse for incident information nationwide.

Crews plan to connect fire lines and developing contingency lines and structure-protection plans.

The Priest Lake area is under a Level 1 voluntary evacuation notice, which advises warns residents of the increased risk and to keep close tabs on fire updates and alerts. It also counsels those with respiratory issues or livestock and pets to make precautionary movement to relocate.

A Thursday message sent out over Nixle, which issues automated alerts to local mobile phones and computers, warned of the potential closure of Highway 57, but the message was later clarified to say that the route remains open.

“At the time and even now, 57 is not threatened,” Kelly said on Friday afternoon.

Bonner County Emergency Management urging tourists to stay away from Priest Lake until the fire danger eases.

“We are encouraging people not to go to Priest Lake this weekend,” said Bob Howard, director of emergency management.

The advisory was issued due to health and safety reasons due to the smoke and the potential for evacuation, which would become more difficult with the influx of weekend visitors.

“That’s a lot of people to evacuate out of Priest Lake. So for the general safety of everybody, including firefighters, we just would really discourage anybody from going to Priest Lake unless they absolutely have to,” Howard said.

The Clark Fork Complex is a combination of fires on the boundary between northern Idaho and northwestern Montana. The lightning-sparked wildfire took root on Aug. 13.

The Whitetail Peak Fire is located 9 miles south of Clark Fork and the Scotchman Peak Fire is 4 miles northeast of Clark Fork. The complex was 10,873 acres in size and no containment information was posted to InciWeb.

“We’re just holding our breath and hope that we get some wet, calm, cold weather,” said Kelly.