Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

5 YEARS AGO • AUGUST 4, 2016

OVER 400 CALLED TO FIGHT BIG BLAZE

Copper King Fire balloons to over 700 acres in big run

At a public meeting Monday, District Ranger Dave Hattis said that he and a crew from the Passport in Time program were on Big Hole Peak Sunday when they noticed a smoke plume rising to the west near Thompson River drainage. A short time later a helicopter flew the area and reported back that there was no real concern yet, it didn’t appear to be going anywhere.

Hattis then told the audience at the information meeting that 30 minutes later the helicopter flew the fire and immediately reported back that they better be gathering up their belongings and heading off the mountain.

Copper King Fire, which started Sunday afternoon, was starting to blow up and there was concern.

That concern was verified in a summary report by John Hamilton of the Plains/Thompson Ranger District, who was the information officer in the first few days. He told the group that at 4 p.m. Sunday, there was a small amount of smoke rising. At 4:30 the fire was estimated to be at 50 acres and then at 6 p.m. it was over 150 acres and exploding with smoke and ash ascending thousands of feet into the air.

The Eddy Peak fire lookout, Craig Phillips, to the south said it was the fastest growing fire he had ever seen in his 11 years on the mountain looking for fires.

Monday morning, after the fire area had been flown with an infrared camera, the arial extent of the fire, not even 24 hours old, was verified. Sunday’s rapid growth produced a footprint of over 700 acres burned, making the fire one of the top two in the state.

Traffic was restricted in the Thompson River drainage but quickly changed to a closure for traffic on the east side road, the ACM Road, while the west side road remains open to public travel.

All who addressed the meeting stressed that this won’t be a short time operation, that they expect the fire suppression effort to take from 60 to 90 days because of the rough conditions of the fire.

Although the fire started not too far up the slope from the ACM road, it quickly grew to about two miles long west to east and nearly a mile wide, with an elevation gain of about 3,200 vertical feet. The steep, rocky terrain will be a challenge said fire managers.

But fire managers said Tuesday was predicted to be a very challenging day as wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour were expected. They described the situation as a “level 5” on the Haines fire index scale, one level below the worst possible conditions.

Planned activities included laying hose along the bottom edges and making sure homes in the Snider area were protected. Richard Griffin, incident commander, said the initial fire fighting effort was to dump retardant on the eastern ridge, which was four air miles from the Big Hole Lookout.

Scott Schrenk, the fire management officer, described the conditions of the fire as “nasty” and echoed the assessment that it would be a long while before the fire is declared controlled.

The Big Hole Lookout was wrapped with an aluminum blanket to provide a level of fire protection.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, lightning strike maps showed no lightning activity in the area of the fire’s origin.

August 18 –

Saturday morning the fire’s perimeter was pegged at 1,465 acres. Sunday morning, the fire had increased to 1,580 acres and Monday the fires burned area was 1,797 acres. Tuesday morning after another day of hot afternoon temperatures, the fire’s new perimeter was credited with 1,930 acres.

August 25 –

Copper King Fire largest in Montana – Winds push blaze to 21,000 acres, pre-evacuation notices given

Wind is no friend to fire fighters and gusts up to 35 miles per bour brought an explosion of activity in the Copper King Fire this weekend, and the fire is now 30 times its size of the first day. Expanding at a rate of one mile an hour, the fire grew from about 3,400 acres Sunday to over 21,000 based on flight taken Monday evening. On Monday the fire was up near the Little Thompson River road 17 miles up the canyon.

It is now the largest fire in Montana.

September 1 –

Tuesday’s acreage was pegged at 24,778 acres, which is up from 21,045 one week ago. Big expansions came Friday and Saturday when the fire grew by nearly 1,000 acres each day. Then from Saturday to Monday the fire grew another 1,300 acres.

September 22 –

After nearly two months, over $27 million and burning over 28,000 acres, the Copper King Fire appears to be nearing historical status.

A final update said although the fire is officially 80 % contained, the fire appears to be past its prime and far less prone to the wild activity that blew it up to be the largest fire in the state.

The fire got its start Sunday, July 31, near a trailhead on the east side of the Thompson River near Snider.