UPDATED 5:15 PM
The Missoula County Sheriff's Office has issued evacuation warnings for approximately ten residences between Bear Creek Road and Graves Creek Road along the Highway 12 corridor due to the Lolo Peak fire.
UPDATED 4:00 PM
The Powell County Sheriff's Office has issued an immediate evacuation order for the Coopers Lake area northeast of Ovando due to the Rice Ridge Fire?, which grew from approximately 40,000 acres to about 55,000 acres. An evacuation warning is in place for residents north of Highway 200 between the Missoula and Lewis and Clark county lines.
There will be a public meeting Monday at 6 p.m. at the Mission Bible Fellowship Church in Seeley Lake about the Rice Ridge Fire.
UPDATED 3:30 PM
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office issued a mandatory evacuation order around 1 p.m. for the 17 Mile Community Area of Pipe Creek Road north of Troy due to the West Fork Fire, which is burning 1,600 acres northwest of Libby. The evacuation order affects 12 to 15 residences. Pipe Creek Road is closed at the mile 12 marker to the summit.
An existing pre-evacuation warning remains in place for residents of the upper end of Bobtail Road north of Bobtail Cutoff, Hutton Drive, Bobtail Cut-off including Winter Road and Whitetail Road, Pipe Creek Road from Forest Way including Lodge Pole Road, Blue Mountain Lookout Road and Doak Creek Road.
A public meeting will be held at 4 p.m. at the Libby Middle/High School at 150 Education Way in Libby.
A shelter has been established at the Libby Assembly of God Church at 105 Collins Avenue.
UPDATED 1:15 PM
The Ravalli County Sheriff's Office has issued a new evacuation order for about 200 homes due to the Lolo Peak Fire west of Florence. The evacuation order is for residents west of Highway 93 between Bass Creek Road and Hannaford Avenue, and residents west of the Florence Carlton Loop.
An evacuation warning has been extended south to include all residents on the south side of Bass Creek Road west of Highway 93 to South Kootenai Creek Road, including Redtail Hawk Lane. Evacuation warnings remain in effect from Hannaford Avenue north to West County Lane Road west of Highway 93.
Evacuated residents need to check in with the Ravalli County Sheriff's Office at the Search and Rescue Command van in the Stevensville Super One parking lot. Evacuees can also call The Ravalli County Emergency Operations Center at 375-6650. Fire information booths are set up at the Stevensville Super One and Florence Farmer's State Bank parking lots, or call 272-5433 for more information.
The Red Cross has set up a shelter at the LDS Church in Stevensville at the intersection of Eastside Highway and Middle Burnt Fork Road.
UPDATED 10:30 AM
There is a new evacuation ORDERfor the Lake McDonald area of Glacier National Park.
"Based on recommendations from the Sprague Fire Incident Management Team, Glacier National Park has issued an Evacuation Order effective September 3, 2017 at 10 am for all residents and visitors from the south end of Lake McDonald to Logan Pass. This includes the Lake McDonald Lodge, concession housing, Kelly Camp Area, and the Avalanche and Sprague Creek Campgrounds. Logan Pass is still accessible from the east side of the park. The duration of the evacuation is unknown at this time.
The Sprague Fire Incident Management Team made the recommendation in preparation for this evening’s forecasted high east winds, which could increase activity on the west side of the Sprague Fire.
Park rangers will be making notifications in the area. Don’t wait to be contacted by authorities to leave. Visitors should take all of their belongings with them as it is unknown when the area will be safe to return. Evacuating the fire area early helps firefighters keep roads clear of congestion and allows them to move more freely to do their job.
Once residents and visitors leave, they will not be allowed in the closed area until it is deemed safe again. Law enforcement officers will be patrolling the closed area to provide security."
Most of Montana is under a red flag warning for dangerous fire conditions through at least 9:00pm tonight, in some areas the warning goes through 9:00pm Monday night.
The Lincoln County Sheriff's office reports "several structures lost" in the West Kootenai area due to the Caribou Fire doubling in size overnight to nearly 14,000 acres. Details are on the Lincoln County Sherrif's office Facebook page.
A new evacuation order was issued this morning for the Alice Creek Fire, and a portion of Highway 200 is now closed east of Lincoln due to the fire.
This was posted on the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest Facebook page at little afer 8am today: "Due to a growing threat from the Alice Creek Fire, the Sheriff of Lewis and Clark County has issued additional mandatory evacuations. Residents on both sides of Highway 200, south of Highway 434, from mile marker 92 through mile marker 100, extending east to the south fork of the Dearborn River are under mandatory evacuations. For safety, affected residents are being asked to vacate their property as soon as practical. A Red Cross shelter is being set up at the Wolf Creek School located at 150 Walsh Street. Questions concerning the evacuations can be directed to the public information officer at 208-991-0067. We'll update more as we get it."
New evacuation orders were issued for the Sapphire Complex of firesin the Rock Creek area east of Missoula. Click here for evacuation order details.
Firefighters expect "a critical weather day" on the Highway 200 complex of seven fires in the Plains/Thompson Falls/Trout Creek area.
There is a public meeting at Plains High School today at 1:00 PM. For more information, contact the Public Information Officers at (406) 219-1960 or hwy200complex@gmail.com.
On the Rice Ridge Fire, managers say to expect a continued heavy aerial attack, as well as lots of heavy equipment on the ground.
Here's what the team on the Lolo Peak Fire is expecting today: "Fire is expected to be active in the One Horse and Sweeney Creek drainages. The public may see isolated tree torching from deep inside the fire line as wind kicks up flames that consume unburned pockets of fuel.
As a result of the red flag conditions, these areas are expected to produce significant amounts of smoke, and smoke columns will be visible from the Highway 93 corridor. Nearby fires in northern Idaho and western Montana will also be experiencing increased activity brining more smoke into the area."
The Meyers Creek Fire southwest of Phillipsburg grew 7,000 acres yesterday. Here's part of what's expected on the fire today: "The most intense fire growth is projected in the East Fork of the Bitterroot moving east. Smoke from the fire activity in the East Fork Bitterroot will influence the progression of fire east of Moose Lake Road. Across the fire, point protection for structures will remain the priority. Crews will grid for spot fire on the east side of Moose Lake Road (FS Road 5106) to keep the fire west of the road north of Moose Lake. Hand and machine line construction is expected to start from the East Fork Road. The indirect line near Zeke’s Meadow will be improved today with a 20 person hot shot crew."
There was a close call for some firefighters yesterdayon the Liberty Fire southeast of Arlee.
Red flag conditions are also possible on the Park Creek Fire just north of Lincoln. Fire managers there say, "High winds and low RH resulted in the fire becoming active last evening. The fire is now established in the Arrastra Creek Drainage, and pockets of interior green vegetation burned on the North side of Stonewall Butte."
Here's part of the update on the Blue Bay Fire on the west side of Flathead Lake: "High temperatures, combined with low relative humidity and wind, will test the work firefighters have recently completed on the Blue Bay Fire and other fires burning on the Flathead Reservation.
On the Blue Bay Fire, containment lines have been tested during the past several days of hot, windy conditions. Despite some small spot fires detected in Okie Draw, acreage remains constant at 490 acres with 80% containment. Firefighters continue to work hard extinguishing heat sources on the fire. One firefighter experiencing heat related illness was transported to the hospital Saturday evening."
In Eastern Montana there's a positive report on that 91,000 acre-plus Sartin Draw Fire: "Firefighters in conjunction with local ranchers put in another hard day of work and are making great progress in putting this fire to bed."
This video update on the East Fork Fire on the Hill/Blaine county line says they're not expecting much growth on the fire:
