Reservation Wildfires Growing More Intense
As wildfire intensity ramps up, four employees and one BIA fire engine coordinate with local volunteer fire departments to protect the Fort Peck Reservation of more than two million acres.
The Green fire on Thursday, Aug. 1, burned 12 acres of heavy downed cottonwoods and pines along the Missouri River four miles southwest of Wolf Point. A riverside party left an unattended campfire Wednesday night. In the sun next day it began throwing flaming embers that started new “spot fires” 20 and 30 feet away. To stop the leapfrogging flames, the BIA engine needed to burn out a swath around the blaze which came to meet them.
“The fuels are just curing out a lot more,” said fire management officer Adam Wolf. “You can see the intensity. The rate of spread is going up a lot more. Fire behavior is getting extreme.”
Support from local volunteer departments sponsored by Montana DNRC is the critical link to keep fires small now. Four Wolf Point VFD engines and a water tender worked closely with BIA to suppress the Green fire. When a fire beyond local capacity breaks out, BIA must request aid from Lewistown BLM fire dispatch – which is priceless but not instant, either.
Wolf has applied for federal “severity” funding based on daily extreme fire danger and weather, which would allow more engines to join the BIA staff in Poplar on 14-day rotations while extreme conditions remain. BIA firefighters respond 24-7, such as to a false alarm after midnight this morning. After 16 hours on duty, though, Federal law requires they take 8 hours’ rest.
By the Frazer pumping plant, a six-acre fire from Thursday, July 25, smoldered then relit Thursday after midnight: the four-acre pump plant two fire. The prior week, the Badger Hole 2 fire burned 15 acres northeast of Brockton, then Monday the Road 1037 fire lit 44 more acres a mile away. On Tuesday, the Boot fire scorched a half acre along BIA Highway 1 west of Poplar.
Wolf expects wildfires to “keep getting more intense through the month of August.” Employees of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes are cheering for residents to stay safe through mid-summer. Sunee Erickson in Tribal Operations said Friday, “Please remember to stay hydrated and check in on elders, kids, and pets on hot days!”
