KALISPELL - Wildfires burning across Western Montana this summer have forced residents to evacuate their homes as fire grows dangerously close to their properties.
Evacuation orders are issued by county sheriffs following lengthy discussions with a variety of agencies including fire management specialists.
“The sheriff makes tough decisions, especially when it comes to fire,” said Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino.
As wildfires burn across the Montana landscape, some offer little to no time to get out of harm’s way.
“I think where I came back to, is I always ask myself what would I want, and I think the biggest thing on fires is having that notification, preemptive time,” said Sheriff Heino.
Sheriff Heino said he tries to give residents enough time to move family members, livestock, or any valuable items away from the fire’s path.
“We never force anybody from their homes but we’re saying that the fire is or could reach those residential structures in a period of time that usually, that’s... 24, 48 hours is kind of what we’re looking at.”
Sheriff’s deputies will stretch miles going door-to-door informing residents of evacuation orders, often with little time to spare.
“Not every fire gives us that fortunate ability and we have response plans in place to immediately get out there," Sheriff Heino told MTN News.
With fires often in remote wilderness areas, Sheriff Heino said he’s always concerned with access points being cut off, a fear if residents decide to stay behind.
“We understand rights of property ownership and people’s decisions, we’re going to ask for next of kin contacts and those types of things when we get to it.”
Sheriff Heino said life safety, and protecting people’s homes and private property is their main priority.
Northern Rockies Incident Command Team 6 Public Information Officer Amy Hyfield said the sheriff is in constant communication with fire specialists before making evacuation orders.
“It’s his call, but the sheriff has been very receptive to meeting with incident management personnel and really looking at their advice, in terms of firefighting and predicted behavior of the fire and everything,” said Hyfield.
Sheriff Heino said he leans on past fire experience when making evacuation orders, trying to give people as much time as possible during a stressful situation.
“I’ve been around fire, I actually started out with the forest service and saw some of those, I’ve also worked as a volunteer fireman. I’ve also had a fire at my house, I mean all of those different things make you really evaluate the more notification you can have.”
