The fire has burned more than 170,000 acres in the southeast part of the state
7:03 p.m. MDT August 13, 2021
Map of the Richard Spring Fire, 12:31 a.m. MDT August 13, 2021
The Richard Spring Fire reported August 8, 2021 10 miles southwest of Colstrip, Montana has burned along the Tongue River threatening multiple communities. It has been driven by strong winds through brush, short grass, and timber 90 miles east of Billings.
Evacuations are in effect for Lame Deer, Muddy Cluster, and Rosebud Cut Across.
Highway 212 is closed between Broadus and Crow Agency to all non-residents. Highway 39 is currently open, but this could change at any time.
The north side of the fire spread to the massive coal mines west of Colstrip. The south side, 12 miles to the south, jumped across US Highway 212 east of Lame Deer and has moved into heavier fuels. That is the area that showed the most activity in a 12:31 a.m. mapping flight Friday and is where many resources are currently concentrated.
Richard Spring Fire. Burnout along Highway 212 August 11, 2021. InciWeb photo.
Firefighters, including four Hotshot crews, are constructing hand line south of Highway 212 in an effort to contain the fire north of the Lame Deer Divide Road. Air tankers and helicopters are supporting the ground-based crews.
Lame Deer Fire
A fire 4 miles west of the Richard Spring Fire, the Lame Deer Fire, has burned 5,427 acres just north of Highway 212 and the community of Muddy. It is 3 miles west of Lame Deer. Firefighters took advantage of the precipitation to construct line and conduct burnout operations. Those efforts have been successful so far, and crews now have initial control lines constructed around most of the perimeter and will continue to strengthen those lines.
Multiple governors asked President Biden for aerial assets, firefighters, help in obtaining aviation fuel, and aggressive initial attack
Aviation resources on the Cedar Creek Fire in Washington, July 29, 2021. InciWeb.
Friday President Biden hosted his second virtual meeting to discuss wildfire preparedness. This session was with the Governors of three western states, Montana, Washington, and California. The earlier meeting on the topic was June 22, 2021.
The Governors told Mr. Biden that their states need more aviation resources, they need help with obtaining aviation fuel, they need more boots on the ground, and they encourage aggressive initial attack.
“Everything we need to fight forest fires is in dire need across the Western United States,” said Governor Jay Inslee of Washington.
These requests, coming from multiple states in late July with the meat of the fire season still possibly on the horizon, are astonishing.
The President began the meeting with a few remarks before asking the three Governors what the Federal government could do to help.
“Our resources are already being stretched to keep up,” Mr. Biden said. “We need more help, particularly when we also factor in the additional nationwide challenges of pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and our ongoing efforts to fight COVID. We’ve had a few COVID clusters at our fire camps, which further limits resources. It’s just one more reason why it’s so darn important that everyone get vaccinated, I might add. Sadly, we’ve also lost two brave firefighters in the last month in a plane crash in Arizona, and five were seriously injured last week battling the Devil’s Creek fire in Montana. It’s — to state the obvious, and you governors know it better than anybody — it is really, really dangerous work, and it takes incredible bravery to do it. And these heroes deserve to be paid — and paid well — for their work. That’s why, last month, I was able to announce — and it’s not paying that well, in my view, to be honest with you — immediate action to make all federal firefighters making at least $15 an hour. I think they deserve more than that. We’re also working with Congress to make sure that our firefighters are paid better permanently. Permanently.”
Governor Greg Gianforte of Montana was called on first. He spoke briefly, saying that aggressive initial attack was important. “Without that commitment,”Governor Gianforte said, “we would have had many more large scale fires. And we ask that our federal partners join us in applying this operating principle. Whether it’s a fire that starts on private, state, or federal land — fires are easier to manage when they’re smaller.”
Governor Gianforte then went on to talk about active forest management.
Below are quotes from the other two Governors.
Governor Jay Inslee, Washington
My biggest concern might surprise you because all of the governors share these immediate concerns. We have a huge need for additional aerial assets, additional dozer bosses so we can get our dozers into fire lines. We need new tra- — more trained people. We do have an emerging concern about our fuel supply for our aerial assets. Everything we need to fight forest fires is in dire need across the Western United States, not just in Washington State. We’ve had a thousand fires. It’s burned four times more at this time of year than normal. We’ve had two and a half times more acreage burn in the last decade than the previous.
Governor Gavin Newsom, California
Look, I just want to briefly — because there’s so many of us — a quick update. We’re blowing past every record, and not in a good way. We’re at over 5,700 fires year-to-date. We suppressed 59 just yesterday with some initial attacks. Over half a million acres already burned in California. To put in perspective — a record-breaking year. Last year, we were at 130,000 acres burned. We’re at 504,000 as I speak to you today.
Here’s the answer to your question. And forgive me for being so pointed again, respecting your time, but I want to be a little bit more specific. Jay referenced it obliquely. Please pay attention to this fuels issue. We had to get our National Guard to get some emergency fuel supplies for our aerial fleet a week ago. This is a major issue, and it’s not just impacting our aerial suppression strategies on the West Coast. It’s increasingly, as you may know, impacting commercial aviation. It is a major issue.
Number two, we just simply need more boots on the ground. We can’t do without you. We’ve got 7,400 people — 7,400 already. We’re not in fire season. Fire season in California is late September, October, into November. We’re in July. We already have 7,400 personnel actively working to suppress fires. Last year, the federal government asked us for over 5,000 mutual aid support that we could not provide. That gives you a sense of what the federal government wanted from California last year to send to other states. That should give you a sense of how far behind we are with federal support.
We have four DC-10s, Mr. President. Four. Now, DC-10s aren’t the answer to every problem. They don’t fly over 35 knots. They have restrictions; there are legendary restrictions. But the reality is there is four for the country, and we’re competing. They’re all contracted. We compete with you. We compete with other states. We don’t even have access right now to DC-10s. We lost that 747 — that iconic 747 — that now has been converted to a cargo plane. You’ve seen that in Australia, not just across the West Coast. That’s now been grounded by a private contractor.
We are the largest civil aviation fleet for firefighting in the world — California. We do not come close to having the tools in the air that we need. We need your support to su- — to dramatically increase the aerial support, in addition to boots on the ground.
But here’s the final thing, and it’s the elephant in the room. I was with Governor Sisolak two days ago in his state of Nevada. The reason why is we had a fire that was on federal property. Fifty-seven percent of the forest property in California is federal, just three percent under California jurisdiction. Three percent. Fifty-seven percent under U.S. Forest Service. U.S. Forest Service is spectacular. We have deep admiration and respect, but there’s a culture that, too often, is, “Wait and see.” We can’t afford that any longer. This was a federal fire. They waited. And what we saw is the fire took off because we didn’t put enough initial assets.
Greg was making an oblique point here. I want to be a little bit more explicit: We need your help to change the culture, in terms of the suppression strategies, in this climate, literally and figuratively, to be more aggressive on these federal fires. That fire bled into Nevada and, obviously, impacted not just our two states, but deeply impacted the redundancy of this concern that comes out every year around jurisdictions and incident command and the imperative that we’re all on the same page, in terms of those initial attack strategies.
The wildfires in Southeast British Columbia, Northern Washington, Northern Idaho, and Northwest Montana were putting up a lot of smoke Thursday at 7:10 p.m. PDT. NASA GOES 17.
Map showing heat detected by a satellite on the Granite Pass Complex during the seven-day period that ended July 26, 2021.
A firefighter on the Granite Pass Complex about 28 air miles southwest of Missoula, Montana was found about five hours after he was reported missing July 25.
The individual had been scouting an area suitable for a fireline and missed his scheduled check-in. At about 7:30 p.m. Missoula County Dispatch was notified of the missing firefighter, and California Interagency Incident Management Team 15 began multiple attempts to contact him. After there was no success, the team began to search by ground and air.
Missoula County Sheriff’s Office Deputies and Missoula County Search and Rescue were dispatched at 8:20 p.m. The individual’s vehicle was located in the vicinity of the White Mountain Lookout and Pilot Knob, southwest of Missoula at approximately 9:40 p.m. The Missoula County Search and Rescue and the Sheriff’s Office issued a Mutual Aid Request to Two Bear Air for aviation assistance. Airspace was cleared with the Incident Management Team and Two Bear Air began assisting Missoula County Search and Rescue ground resources.
The individual who had been reported missing realized they were not in their intended location and could not contact anyone by radio or phone. To minimize impacts to himself and local search and rescue resources, he explained later that he found an area suitable to stay the night.
He was located by Missoula County Search and Rescue just after midnight on July 26, 2021. He was tired and thirsty but uninjured and able to make his way out unassisted by search personnel.
Two Bear Air provides aviation support in portions of the Northwest to search and rescue teams. It is run by a philanthropist at no cost to taxpayers. Fire Aviation has several articles about the organization.
The Granite Pass Complex consists of four wildfires burning in the vicinity of Lolo Pass on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests in Idaho and the Lolo National Forest in Montana. They are being managed together under one Type 2 Incident Management Team. Since the fires started from lightning on July 12 they have burned a total of about 3,700 acres.
A fire crew from Georgia works on the Granite Pass Complex of fires. Posted July 24, 2021 on InciWeb.
Five firefighters were injured July 22 when their fire engine was burned over while they were working on a wildfire in northeast Montana. They were constructing fireline on the Devils Creek Fire in Garfield County when a passing thunderstorm created erratic winds that blew the fire over their position.
At least three of the firefighters were taken to a burn center in Salt Lake City.
The lightning-caused fire is burning in rough, steep terrain near the Pine Grove School, about 36 miles northwest of Jordan, east of the Devils Creek Road which accesses the south shore of Fort Peck Reservoir.
Personnel on site continue to fight the blaze, which has burned about 375 acres of BLM and private land.
Devils Creek Fire, Garfield County, MT. Wildfire Today/Google.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Al, Dick, and Tom.
Dan Steffensen. Photo courtesy of Red Lodge Fire Rescue.
Red Lodge Fire Rescue has released information about a firefighter who suffered serious burns while battling the Harris Fire near Joliet, Montana 25 miles northeast of Red Lodge, MT on July 16. Dan Steffensen was on a two-person engine crew when strong winds suddenly shifted in his direction. He attempted to reach safety, but was overrun by the fast moving fire and injured. Due to the severity of his burns, Mr. Steffensen was admitted to the University of Utah Burn Center in Salt Lake City in serious condition. His family and firefighting colleagues are traveling to be with him.
The other person on the engine was Scott Wilson, who was not injured. He acted quickly to make the notifications and assist in getting emergency medical care for his partner.
From Red Lodge Fire Rescue:
Dan has been a firefighter with Red Lodge Fire since 2015. In 2017 Dan was selected as volunteer “Firefighter of the Year” and works on the fuel mitigation/Initial Attack crew where in the summers he works to reduce hazardous fuels around homes and responds to emerging wildland fires. He is a nationally qualified wildland firefighter and has fought fires in Montana, Oregon, California and other western states as an engine boss and water tender operator.
Those wanting to help support Mr. Steffensen and his family can donate via the GoFundMe page which has been set up for his benefit.
L to R, Dan Steffensen and Scott Wilson. Photo courtesy of Red Lodge Fire Rescue.
If you’re thinking the town of Red Lodge, Montana sounds familiar, the Robertson Draw Fire just south of the community burned over 27,000 acres in June.
