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Wildfire, fire management and air quality news for western Montana and the Northern Rockies.

Cabin Gulch Fire Still Burning, Though Mostly Unseen

Cabin Gulch Fire 07-22-15
Courtesy Inciweb
Cabin Gulch Fire 07-22-15

From Front Street in Townsend, it’s hard to tell there’s a fire, except for the occasional fire engine and the unusual traffic around the Forest Service Office. But drive a few miles out of town on highway 12, and you soon find a landscape dominated by blackened and smoldering trees. No flames are visible from the highway, but Forest Service public information officer Marvin Carpenter says only a fraction of the fire has been put out.

“Right now it’s listed at 15 to 20 percent contained," Carpenter says. "Until they get line totally around it and get then line secured by mopping it up and getting the black cold, we really won’t know. But it’ll be some days.”

The fire started from an unknown cause Tuesday, and high winds quickly fanned it to 2,500 acres. In a few hours firefighters contained the fire’s entire south side, where it abuts US highway 12. But as of Wednesday afternoon the north, east and west sides were still out of control, though burning slowly. Last night residents gathered at the local school to hear Helena Forest Service Supervisor Bill Avey tell them a lot of work remains.

“There’s been a lot of good progress made," Avey explains. "We’ve had favorable weather today. That being said, it’s gonna be a while. There’s a lot of work to be done yet.”

Two things helped firefighters get the upper hand on the first day: cooler, damp weather and the Forest Service had several planes and helicopters available to drop retardant. Townsend area District Ranger Corey Lewelyn says that was a stroke of luck.

“We didn’t have a lot going on," Lewelyn says. "And we knew that there were some very high resources in the area, and so were able to get a lot of aerial support. Come the middle of August, it might not be like that. I just want to make sure folks know it just worked out well that we had a lot of resources available.”

A new forest service team took over the fire late Wednesday. A camp for hundreds of firefighters is taking shape on the highway just outside Townsend. While Tuesday’s billowing smoke and towering flames may be out of sight, this fire is long way from finished.

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