EB and Glacier fire?

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9 more days to EB #27, GFK to VAN. Fingers crossed the fires don't disrupt my river cruise plans! (Columbia River)
 
The amount of manpower and equipment both the USFS and BNSF are putting into this fight is something to behold. Hundreds of firefighters, dozens of bulldozers and other heavy pieces of equipment and several helicopters are up at Essex. They are wrapping buildings, clearing literally thousands of trees away from just south of the BNSF main line tracks and hauling the timber away daily. The wooden trestle has been fitted with sprinklers and hoses have been laid all over the Essex area. The main fire remains just south of Essex and has been moving slowly to the North.

A few very small spot fires have been reported in the immediate Essex area; all successfully put out, but the smoke and ash are a constant issue. BNSF is ferrying men and equipment and water tanks daily mostly from the Whitefish area on a special train. A good amount of BNSF's normal traffic flow has been diverted to other routes during this crisis, so this has helped.

Thursday and Friday appear to be very critical for this area. Temperatures today got into the mid 90's in the Valley and even around 90 in the Essex area (about 15 degrees above normal). Thursday and Friday should be even warmer and very dry (RH around 10-15%) with more winds out of the SW. The smoke was not quite as bad in the Valley today, or perhaps we are just getting used to it, not sure now........
 
Thanks for the reports Mike! Hope the Good luck continues and Fall gets there soin!

Wonder if BNSF might consider keeping the trees cut down close to the track on an ongoing basis like Cities do with trees and power lines?

Is this private land or RR ROW they are working on? I'm not familiar with Montana Law concerning property and Public Safety Hazards, that's why I ask!
 
They are cutting large swaths of trees down on the South side of the tracks. The land is both privately owned (even some IWI land) and part of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I was trying to get a copy of the image in our local paper showing how close the fire is to the IWI. Very close. The official USFS web site stated "less than a mile away". The local news media stated this AM that it was just across the tracks in some spots-yikes. My gut feeling is that they should be able to save the Inn and the BNSF buildings and trestle, given the huge amount of effort being exerted, but we are all worried about Friday, as yet another dry cold front passes by with more lightning and strong winds.

BNSF does have a tree trimming program in place along this stretch of track, but not to the extent that they and the USFS are doing now in the Essex area. It is a double edged sword. The trees help anchor the soil and ground along the tracks to minimize rock falls and mud slides. As you are likely well aware it is pretty steep along much of that route through the south edge of the park and any vegetation that can gain a foothold is a plus to lower the chances of mud slides in the summer and avalanches in the winter.

Meanwhile the fire complex that is South of Libby has tripled in size recently and could, in a week or so threaten roads and tracks in that area, although the terrain there is less forbidding than around Essex. Never a dull moment here. We will all be so glad when we finally do get some rain and cooler temperatures and winter comes to put an end to what has been a nightmare of a summer.
 
Here is an image, taken from the Izaak Walton Inn yesterday. As you can see the fire is indeed very close. My wife and I go snowshoeing each winter in the very areas that are currently ablaze!

:-(

Sheep Fire Essex.jpg
 
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Yikes!

Is the wilderness boundary right by the tracks? And are they actually cutting trees within the wilderness? I know they have a special dispensation here where I live, right now, on the Canyon Creek Complex, Fire, to use chainsaws in the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness (so it can be done in case of emergency).
 
The RR has a certain amount of Right-of-way, the Inn owns a portion of the land, plus some of the other land is privately owned, but yes some of the land to the south of the tracks is part of the National Forest and the BMW and they are indeed logging that as well. I believe when people's lives and property are threatened the government does indeed waiver the normal firefighting procedures. US 2 also cuts right between the Park and the BMW as well.

PS: The County Sheriff just ordered the evacuation of Essex. The fire is getting too close now and so far efforts to stop the fire have not been entirely successful. Bummer......
 
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Yes, the rules on what can and can't be done in a wilderness area can be waved in an emergency.

Whatever happens, the area is going to look pretty different after this. :(
 
montana mike said:
The RR has a certain amount of Right-of-way, the Inn owns a portion of the land, plus some of the other land is privately owned, but yes some of the land to the south of the tracks is part of the National Forest and the BMW and they are indeed logging that as well. I believe when people's lives and property are threatened the government does indeed waiver the normal firefighting procedures. US 2 also cuts right between the Park and the BMW as well.

PS: The County Sheriff just ordered the evacuation of Essex. The fire is getting too close now and so far efforts to stop the fire have not been entirely successful. Bummer......
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The main line of the fire is now less than 1/4 mile from the BNSF tracks according to the USFS spotters. Some firefighters have been pulled back from logging activities to try to protect the buildings. As I said in my 3:15 PM message the Sheriff ordered mandatory evacuations. None to soon given the imminent threat to all in this area. Once this is all done (and who knows when that will be given the grim Fall and winter forecasts for our area) the once pristine and spectacular Marias Pass area will indeed look a lot different for many decades. We often drive guests thru the Moose Fire (71,000 acres) area, on the west side of the Park, which burned 14 years ago and while there are many signs of life and small (6 foot high) trees covering at least some of the burn area, it still looks like a war zone 14 years later.
 
yarrow said:
as of an hour or so ago, essex is under mandatory evacuation. the residents were given 1 hour to leave. we have lived in the woods in e. washington since 1976. worst fire season anyone around here has seen
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Yes indeed, and the first time in my memory that it has hit all the NW states (Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and northern California) badly, at the same time.
 
What Climate Change?

I'm no scientist as the "snake oil" salesmen politicians and their moronic supporters say, but even Alfred E. Neuman would be worried!!!
 
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Looks like the rail line has been shut down until further notice. I just called Amtrak because I'm scheduled to be leaving MSP on the EB tomorrow night, but they haven't made any changes to itineraries beyond today, yet. Will have to hope for the best and see what happens in the next few hours...
 
jimhudson said:
What Climate Change?

I'm no scientist as the "snake oil" salesmen politicians and their moronic supporters say, but even Alfred E. Neuman would be worried!!!
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We had a very bad Fire Season about eleven years ago and another bad one in 2012 and both years actually burned more acreage than we have so far this year (we were here then as well), but 1910 was by far the worst fire year. Historians refer to that summer as The Summer Montana Burned. Well over 1 million acres torched just in MT. Similar weather patterns occurred during those years, which we unfortunately do have every once in a while, especially during El Nino years. Our issue this year though was three fold, which we did not experience during the past two higher than normal fire seasons: (1) below normal snowpack in NW MT because of the El Nino developing last winter, (2) the driest spring and summer (so far) in NW MT in 100 years, (3) hot, hot, hot (7 record high temps in Kalispell this summer thanks to the "Super El Nino" developing). During 2004 and 2012, even though there were many fires (a lot of T-storm activity), NW MT had close to normal rainfall and we experienced normal summer temperatures and the fires that did occur, while huge, were not near most population bases. This year all we have to do is look at a tree and it explodes!!!
 
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Thanks HenryK! :hi:

Looks like Essex hasn't burned YET... :help:

Maybe Montana Mike has volunteered on the fire lines? :huh:
 
I appreciate your concern. Just a busy day to take care of other important things here. So far no fires threatening Whitefish. The smoke is worse here in the Flathead Valley today than in the past. Visibility is often down to a mile or less and almost everyone notices their throats getting raw from breathing the smoke filled air-which remains in the Very Unhealthy category. Some of our Whitefish fire department people have been in Essex helping to fight the fire today. The feedback from them is there has been minor spotting of small fires in and around Essex, but the main fire line is not quite there-yet, but it is within a few hundred yards of the tracks in several areas! BNSF and USFS crews have removed thousands of trees and built several fire breaks, but against strong winds they would be of little or no use. Winds of over 40 mph from the SW (the worst possible direction) are forecasted for tomorrow with no measurable rainfall on the horizon for yet again at least another week. This is getting really old. It's like we are living in a desert here (record low stream flows for all rivers in NW MT--the lowest ever recorded). So low that many rafters and kayakers can't even use some parts of the Flathead river, which we have not seen before. Other than one 6 hour period of rain on June 2nd there has been essentially no measurable rainfall in almost all of NW MT since mid April. More small fires have popped up in the Bob Marshall Wilderness over the past couple days as well. The other news is the Fire complex now only 8 miles from Libby (read BNSF main line and Amtrak station) grew a lot today and is marching towards that town.

US 2 remains closed and BNSF trains are only being allowed thru sporadically and most freight service has been diverted. Interesting to see all of the freight cars backed up in the Whitefish yard right now.
 
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Thanks Mike! :hi:

Wish it was better news. As you said earlier, once it finally starts raining again, that will bring its own set of problems.

I've wanted to hike in the Bob Marshall Wilderness since I was a teenager. Hopefully there will be something left once all this craziness ends.

People with breathing disorders must be really hurting.

Good luck and stay safe.
 
Thanks Mike for the update..coming to east glacier in 3 weeks..hope it will be better by then..Stayed in that engine in Essex.Hope the Inn and other homes will be spared..such a beautiful area..take care
 
Update on Fires in NW MT: (1) The fairly good news is that the high winds forecast for this area have not materialized, yet. The Sheep Fire knocking on the door at Essex has so far been held just south of the BNSF tracks thru incredible efforts by over 500 fire fighters and equipment. (2) The not so good news is that the complex of fires just SW of Libby has grown rapidly today and they are now evacuating some homes just to the SW of Libby. This fire has the potential to threaten Libby and of course the BNSF main line at some point this week.

The cool front will apparently come thru here this PM dry, as has been the case all summer. No measurable rainfall forecast for our area, just wind.
 
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