Western wildfires: Wind, heat fueling large blazes chasing people from homes

As our firefighters return from the horrific fires to the north, they remark that the conditions that we have in Marin – steep slopes and dense vegetation along narrow, winding roads, coupled with the close proximity of structures to the wildland areas – are worse than they experienced while engaged in these large-scale incidents.

The blaze was producing smoke columns visible from Missoula on Friday afternoon.

In Montana, the Sucker Creek Fire in the Helena National Forest has forced dozens of people from their homes on the edge of the forest since Thursday, National Forest Service spokeswoman Kathy Bushnell said. Alice Creek Road is also closed.

A Type 1 team has been ordered and is anticipated to arrive and take over management of the fire tomorrow. Winds shifts sent smoke from the fire all the way to the San Francisco Bay Area, where residents turned to social media to report the haze.

Update: 11:45 p.m. Friday: Fire crews now say seven homes have been lost in the Marble Valley fire late Friday.

The area is still the scene of an active fire, said unified command center spokesman Gert Zoutendijk.

“Depending on what occurs tonight, we’re going to get some small, five-person crews in there”, DeNitto said.

One person from the motor home was burned, officials said.

“We need additional air resources to increase our comfort”, Beverlin said. “The other is heading into the Nyack drainage to check on the patrol cabins”.

So far, it is 15% contained, with more than 770 officials working to bring the flames under control. No details were available about that blaze at press time. Fires grew about 4,300 acres Thursday.

The helicopters are backed by single-engine retardant bombers, but none of the large ones capable of hitting a broad swath. Gird Road #714 is now closed in its entirety at the junction of Skalkaho Highway #38. The focus Friday was to dig and burn containment lines along the south and eastern perimeter of the fire where it had crept into Napa County, posing a potential threat to the remote Berryessa Estates, a community evacuated during the Butts wildfire past year. There are now no structures threatened and no trail closures.

That growth has been problematic for fire crews across the state, who have few extra resources to tap.

About 24 miles northeast of Libby, the Weigel fire was burning about 120 acres in lodgepole timber Friday.

The Caribel area is also being evacuated because of the Lolo 2 Fire.

The lighting-caused Canyon Creek Complex is now estimated at 34,143 acres.

Mandatory evacuations were put in place Friday for areas west of the city limits of Kamiah in northwest Idaho because of a 20-square-mile fire, a TV station reported.

The areas along the highway surrounding and behind Hearthstone Lodge are also under mandatory evacuations.

In Kamiah, Idaho, a 70-year-old woman was killed when she fell while preparing to flee from a wildfire expanding quickly east of Lewiston, the Idaho County Sheriff’s Department said Saturday.