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Northern Rockies/Alberta Fire at Red Lodge

Sibhusky

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Bad Bob

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If the ski area is up there they are going to have more glade skiing.
Have never skied Red Lodge but it seems like a cool resort town.
Best thoughts for all of you over there.
 

Tricia

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This is going to be a baaaaaad fire season. :(

Meanwhile, I'd like to know how I can get my hands on some of those huckleberry caramels that are on the sign of that building.
 

sparty

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Yikes. Is the ski area on Mt Maurice?
No, it's a drainage or two over.

The ski area is not in imminent danger, nor is the town, but some of the outlying areas have been evacuated and some structures have burnt up. Bear Creek (home of the pig races) was evacuated; that order has been lifted, but the folks I know who live there aren't planning on hanging around right now.

There's a public info meeting currently on Facebook Live via the Custer-Gallatin National Forest page (and I think the Red Lodge Fire page). Expectation is that the fire will not be done for a while, as it got big enough to smolder for a long time, but the hope is that the change in the weather will allow containment.

Inciweb details at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7537. The fire went from 20 -> 200 -> 2000 acres really quickly, but with the winds shifting and the weather cooling, it may not keep growing. The biggest concern identified in the meeting was the possibility that it could jump from the drainage it's currently in into the Main Fork drainage, which has both a number of structures, a lot of fuel, and US-212 in it.
 

Tricia

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sparty

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Last night's fire reports were promising, with crews making good headway on fire lines in several places, but there's a lot to deal with and at least one area of terrain that doesn't offer much realistic opportunity for direct attack. Fingers crossed that the weather stays favorable to containment rather than to more fire.
 
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sparty

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Subject charged, apparently he started the fire while attempting to repair a dirt bike he was operating in an area not open to motor vehicles. (The charging docs are linked in the article and have more details.)

 

Tricia

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Subject charged, apparently he started the fire while attempting to repair a dirt bike he was operating in an area not open to motor vehicles. (The charging docs are linked in the article and have more details.)

From the article:

Lightburn told the officer his dirtbike appeared to be flooding, and that he coasted the bike downhill where he stopped the bike and tried to repair it.

While repairing it, Lightburn said he spilled gasoline, telling the officer there was, “gas all over.”

After that, Lightburn reportedly described checking the spark plug to see if he was getting a “spark.”

Lightburn was reportedly successful in getting a spark, and the gasoline and vegetation around it was ignited court documents say.

:doh: :doh::doh:
 

Bad Bob

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ID 10 T!

There was a big burn in Chelan WA 15 years back or so.
That one was started by a couple of backpackers trying to burn their toilet paper to not litter.

Cases like these are so very sad but better than the intentional fires.
 

Bad Bob

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Maybe we should break off this thread into the huckleberry thread?
Before we do here is a link that is worth bookmarking especially for the Westerners in the group.
This Bonneville Power Administrations page tracking fires. If you don't know them BPA is like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) back East. We have 10,000 miles of transmission lines running through the NW so fires are very critical to know about. (As is snowpack ogsmile)
Anyway it is kept very up to date. Good info.

 

Jerez

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Darwin waiting room.
Too bad his lack of common sense has such sad consequences for others.
 

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