Fire behavior remains low in area

Smoke and fog are settling into the valleys at night and are slow to lift in the morning, Kootenai River Complex fire officials said Monday.

"This has made monitoring difficult in the mornings for firefighters but has also kept fire behavior relatively low," they said in a press release.

The fire, which has burned an estimated 21,692 acres northwest of Bonners Ferry, is being fought by 221 personnel led by Type 2 Eastern Area Incident Management Team Gold. Completion of tasks that should lead to containment of the fire has increased to 85 percent, officials said.

The next step in managing these fires is suppression repair, with crews starting construction of water bars along dozer lines where they won’t affect the integrity of the control line.

Water bars are structures built by creating a raised mound of material diagonally across a flat area to prevent erosion downslope from water runoff, officials said. On the Kooteani Complex, the structure are composed of earth material, sand and gravel, which are then piled across bulldozed fire lines.

Dead and down heavy fuels continue to be the main source of fire and smoke on the complex.

"The main operations firefighters are focusing on are patrolling fire control lines, mitigating hazard trees and snags, and chipping cut materials," officials said.

Conditions have kept air resources from flying recon routes. However, the flights will resume as conditions improve.

With minimal fire growth on the Katka and Long Canyon fires, officials said the fires will continue to be unstaffed and monitored by aircraft.

Crews will be actively looking for opportunities for suppression repair in areas that will not impact secure control lines. Priorities will be focused on patrolling fire control lines and monitoring fire behavior, especially in canyons that have shown recent activity. There will still be chipping and hazard tree mitigation in the area.

Boulder Mountain Fire

Northwest Incident Management Team 13 has achieved its objective of fully suppressing the Boulder Mountain Fire, keeping the fire footprint as small as possible and keeping the fire away from Tacoma Creek Road, east of Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge, and north of Calispell Peak and North Fork Tacoma Creek.  

“We want to thank the Kalispel Tribe and the communities of Cusick and Usk for their hospitality and support,” said Northwest 13 Incident Commander Brian Gales. “The Tribe graciously allowed us to use their homelands and Pow Wow Grounds for our incident command post throughout this incident. Local residents and businesses have also made us feel very welcome.” 

Monday marked the final operational shift for Northwest IMT 13. Washington Department of Natural Resources and Colville National Forest will reassume control of the fire Tuesday morning.

The fire, which has burned 2,310 acres is listed as 99% contained. A total of 344 personnel are assigned to the fire, which is impacting a mix of state, federal and private lands.

Diamond Watch Fire

Since started by a lightning strike in mid-July, the Diamond Watch fire, has burned 1,177 acres. Located 5.5 miles due west of Nordman, the fire is listed at 55% containment with 15 fire personnel assigned to the fire.

Columbus and Bear Gulch Fires

The Columbus Fire, started by a lightning strike in August, is straddling the Idaho/Montana corner near the Columbus Creek drainage.

Located 6 miles northeast of Murray, the fire has burned 1,806 acres and is 0% contained.

Located 6 miles east of Murray, the Bear Gulch Fire has burned 144 acres since being sparked by lightning in mid-August. The fire is within a mile of the Idaho/Montana border with terrain similar to the nearby Columbus Fire.

Thor Fire

The Thor Fire — along with the Slate, Salmo and Gypsy Ridge fires — is burning in an area where the fire activity does not pose a threat to any “values at risk,” including wildlife habitats, watershed areas, natural resources, recreation infrastructure, or private land.

The largest of the fires, the Thor Fire, has burned 1,300 acres; the Slate Fire, 620; Salmo, 320; and Gypsy Ridge, 17.

A Type 3 Incident Management Team is managing four fires in the same general area.