More evacuations ordered at Roaring Lion fire

Residents of about 630 homes southwest of Hamilton were under evacuation orders Tuesday while another 215 homes were placed on alert due to concerns the fire may blow up in the evening, said Ravalli County Undersheriff Steve Holton.

On Monday Morning officials reported that the blaze destroyed 12 houses, and Highway 93 is now fully open, although drivers must reduce speed in the area of the fire.

Hours after the Roaring Lion Fire erupted south of Hamilton, displacing over 500 families, the American Red Cross had opened an evacuation shelter at the River Church. It grew to at least a half square mile and is heading up Roaring Lion Road in the Bitterroot National Forest and down the canyon, officials said.

Bitterroot National Forest spokesman, Tod Mckay, told the Missoulian newspaper that they were trying to get people out of the danger zone. We tell people about meetings, and we have a map of the fire zone and what it looked like last night that we picked up at the fire meeting last night.

Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman says some structures have been burned, but he was not sure how many and what kind. “We can’t let people back up there. this is a big area”.

“We’ve had a few folks spend the night, and we’ve been feeding people breakfast, lunch and dinner who have been displaced, but are staying in somebody’s house or a camper, we’ve had people come in to get water and use the bathroom”, Morris said. If you pull the radar, you’ll see the plume is huge.

One person needed cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the Owens Creek area, Hoffman said.

For up-to-date information on this closure and restrictions related to drought and fire, visit fwp.mt.gov/news/restrictions/ or call the FWP office in Missoula at 406-542-5500.

Resident Pamela Caughey lives on the road and says the fire started about 3 p.m. Sunday.

“It’s frightful”, Caughey said. I know they had hand crews and air attack on it right away.

Five helicopters and a plane joined rural fire crews.