ELMO - Fire crews say they are making good progress on containment lines on the Niarada Fire thanks to a change in the weather over the weekend.
“In the last several days we’ve seen a reduced growth pattern, it is gaining some acres here and there but a lot of that is due to better mapping,” said Northern Rockies Incident Management Team 3 Public Information Officer Joe Zwierzchowski.
Zwierzchowski said an increase in humidity and a decrease in overall temperatures are affecting the Niarada Fire’s behavior.
“This area has received a little bit of rainfall but most importantly the humidity has come up and that is a direct contributing factor to reduced fire activity which is making it safer for those boots on the ground, the wildland firefighters to get closer to the fire's edge and really minimize the fire’s spread.”
Zwierzchowski said more than 160 fire personnel are working the fire, he expects the overall containment number to increase this week as crews continue to attack the fire’s edge.
“So, we’ve got folks in there on the ground, kind of cold trailing that area, finding any smoldering stumps or logs that are laying there, putting water on them, breaking them up with hand tools and just making sure that fire is not going to go anywhere.”
He said four structures were lost when fire activity increased Friday afternoon.
“We can confirm that there were four structures lost, one was an unoccupied dwelling, a residence, we’re not sure how long it had been unoccupied, but then the other three were outbuildings, which could range anything from sheds to hay barns to chicken coops.”
He said the weather outlook to start this week is encouraging for firefighters.
“So that’s giving us several days to put in good line, put in good work on those lines and really get aggressive in fighting this fire.”
The Lake County Sheriff's Office downgraded people in evacuation status to a pre-evacuation warning on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023 while the Flathead County Sheriff's Office also eased its evacuations.
