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Smoke but no wildfire; popular drainage closed By ERICKA SCHENCK SMITH Of The Gazette Staff Firefighters began scouring the mountains near Red Lodge at 3 a.m. Monday, searching for fire amidst the heavy smoke hanging over the town. There was no fire; the pungent smoke blew in from southwest Montana where the Bitterroot National Forest and part of the Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National Forest have been closed.
But Custer National Forest officials say they expect a fire soon, and they aren’t taking any chances on safety. On Friday, rangers from the Beartooth Ranger District began warning travelers to the West Fork of the Rock Creek drainage that more than 32,000 acres of the popular recreation lands would be closed Monday. On Monday at 10 a.m., the area was considered officially closed, although some stragglers remained in the forest. The closure includes the West Fork of Rock Creek Road above the Timbercrest Girl Scout Camp, the Silver Run Road above the Silver Run Loops Trailhead, and the Nichols Creek Road. It will remain in effect until the district sees seven consecutive days of moderate-level fire danger. Because of the closure, 33 recreation residences, two campgrounds with a total of 60 campsites and several popular trails will be inaccessible, District Ranger Rand Herzberg said. “Having several hundred people up there a day – or more – we feel is just not a safe situation right now,” Herzberg said Monday morning. Herzberg said he realizes the closure is an inconvenience for a lot of people, including tourists, the concessionaires who run the campgrounds and those who own cabins in the area. But, he said, getting all those people out now is safer than trying to get them out after a fire starts. “There would be people that would not make it out of there,” Herzberg said. “I’m sure there would be pandemonium.” Only 10 percent of the district is accessible by road, making it nearly impossible to get fire engines to a fire, Herzberg said. And he’s not banking on smoke jumpers, helicopters or retardant planes. Resources are too scarce right now, and the priority lies in places like the Bitterroot Valley where there are more lives and homes at stake, he said. “We’re it here,” Herzberg said of the firefighting resources available. Fire crew foreman Tom Gonnoud spent Monday morning tying a makeshift plywood closure sign to three stakes he drove into the shoulder of the Rock Creek Road. “People have been great, they really have,” Gonnoud said. “They’ve been very understanding. We haven’t had a problem with them.” Mike Watkins, a Forest Service law enforcement officer, was patrolling Rock Creek Road for people and cars, making sure they all got out. At noon Monday, four vehicles remained parked along the road inside the closure area. Just up the way from Gonnoud, ranger Jeff Gildehaus supervised construction of a swinging steel gate to block the road. The project was more complicated than it may seem, and six men worked to get the footings in place and level. They would poor concrete into the footings later in the afternoon. Gildehaus, too, said people have been polite about being asked to leave the area. “I don’t think anybody really wants to get caught in a fire on the wrong side of the gate,” he said. Because Rock Creek Road is the only road in and out of the area, Gildehaus said it would be “logistically impossible” to get people out in the case of a fire, especially with trucks and crews trying to get in on the narrow road. Among the people known to still be in the area was an Outward Bound group. Gildehaus said they were expected to arrive at the trailhead by 6 p.m., and he had made plans to get them out through the new gate if necessary. For the rest of the Custer National Forest, Level III restrictions are in place. For travelers, that means no campfires (including charcoal grills) except in designated campsites with steel fire rings, no off-road driving except for occupational purposes and no smoking except inside a car, building, designated campsite or 3-foot area cleared of debris. Herzberg said the restrictions could be bumped up to the more stringent Level IV if hot, dry, volatile conditions continue. Level IV prohibits any kind of cooking fire, including camp stoves, except in designated campsites with steel rings, and off-road driving is prohibited for everyone. The smoking restrictions remain the same. Restricting activity in the Custer National Forest will only help to prevent human-caused fires. The risk of natural fires, especially lightning fires, will remain very high, Herzberg said. He warned that short supplies of people and equipment may make it difficult to save private property in a fire’s path. “Fire danger is extremely high, and because everything else in the world is on fire, the resources to get people in there to fight the fire are skimpy,” Herzberg said. “The chances of us being able to protect a lot of structures right now – it’s going to be difficult.” Ericka Schenck Smith can be reached at 657-1253 or at esmith@billingsgazette.com
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