The Missoula Rural Fire District has an extra fire engine on duty over the 4th of July weekend, in part because of what happened in 2006. District Chief Bill Colwell remembers sitting on his father’s deck that year, watching some local kids shoot off fireworks near Mount Jumbo.
"The fireworks went up in the air, and when they drifted a little bit they came down in a grassed off area at the base of Mt. Jumbo, and the fire was off and running from there," Colwell recalls.
It turned into kind of a big deal.
"The fire extended up the hill. We ended up with aircraft on the top, mutual aid with Missoula Rural Fire and East Missoula Fire. The City of Missoula was involved, the Forest Service was involved, aircraft from both the federal and state areas. We ended up shutting down the Bonneville Power transmission line in the Rattlesnake, which then affected large areas in the nation, shorting them of power until the grid could bring them back up."
And 2006 was a much wetter year than this year, Colwell says. He says fine fuels and large diameter fuels both in the Missoula area are unusually dry now and primed to burn. Fireworks are banned on public and private lands in Missoula county and across much of western Montana.
"As much as I truly enjoy the display of fireworks and the celebration of our independence, we, at my home, are not going to shoot fireworks this year," Colwell said. "I’ve already purchased some, and I’m thinking we’ll save them for after the snow comes, possibly for New Year’s Eve or something like that."
The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch for Missoula and much of northwest Montana for Saturday, stretching from Eureka to Dillon, and east of Butte to the Idaho state line.
