Rice Ridge Recap Sheds Light on Historic Fire Season and Local Decisions

SEELEY LAKE – Discussions of the extraordinary 2017 fire season with a focus on the Rice Ridge fire filled Seeley Lake Elementary Feb. 28. This time 16 panelists from 10 different organizations provided a closer look at the overall fire season and answered questions specific to the Rice Ridge fire.

The Lolo National Forest Fire Management Officer Laura Ward said the LNF has a 10 year average of 138 fires per year that burn an average of 44,000 acres per year. This year there were 94 fires. The Rice Ridge fire alone burned more than 160,000 acres.

Ward said there were nine large fires on the Lolo National Forest this year. Only four were managed independently and five were managed as complexes because the Incident Management Teams were in such short supply.

"We had to combine some fires that we didn't want to combine but we had to because to manage them within our staffing was beyond our capacity and capability," said Ward. Ward added that the Rice Ridge was combined with the Liberty Fire under Greg Poncin's Type 1 team late in the season.

Ward called this year a "flash drought." She said that is a weather term for an unpredictable drought when things dry out in a short time frame.

"What it set us up for in 2017, we started seeing fires get large at 6,000 feet elevation in initial attack in the middle of July. That is not normal for us," said Ward. "It was driven by dry conditions, a lot of indices showed that fire danger and fire behavior was increasing."

Ten days before the Rice Ridge fire popped, the LNF initial attacked 27 fires and 10 days after it started they initial attacked 10 fires. Ten of the 37 fires were human caused and were 100 percent suppression. The other fires were fought using various management strategies on each flank and where firefighters could engage safely.

Ward said that throughout the season on the LNF's nine large fires, Forest had more than 2,000 pieces of equipment, 28 helicopters, 19 fixed wing aircraft that flew more than 5,000 hours, 3,000 firefighters on crews and engines.

The Rice Ridge fire was reported at 4:29 p.m. July 24 by the Mount Morrell lookout and a civilian. The initial size up was five acres and spotting within five minutes of being reported.

The Seeley Lake Ranger District ordered two heavy air tankers, two Type 2 Initial Attack crews and two helicopters. They received one Type 2 Initial attack crew, four SEAT planes, two helicopters, an air attack supervisor, and Type 3 Incident Commander and three single resources within the first 24 hours.

"Sometimes what we order and what we get are two different things," said Ward.

Seeley Lake District Ranger Rachel Feigley said the top priority was always to control the west and south flanks because of the proximity to the Highway 83 corridor and the Seeley Lake and Upper Blackfoot communities.

"We utilized a full suppression strategy focusing on minimizing firefighter risk and also having a high probability of success," said Feigley. "We opted to use direct, indirect and point protection throughout the life of the fire recognizing that there were a lot of hazards out there."

Feigley highlighted several challenges: the continued hot, dry weather; extreme fire behavior; dry fuels; effects of smoke on the community and air operations; closures; evacuations; closure of the waters of Seeley Lake; communications with the residents and public; drone incursions that grounded aircraft; orders that went unfilled; and several other fires burning in the area.

"The teams had to plan for what they had on hand [not for what they thought they might get]," said Feigley. "That became a challenge between the fires because they were trading resources sometimes on a daily basis."

While the Forest Service had the ability to bring in outside resources, the Missoula County Sheriff's Office has limited staff and few options to bring in other law enforcement officers to help with evacuations.

"The community of Seeley Lake showed us a lot of patience, understanding in what we were trying to do and cooperation," said Missoula County Sheriff's Office Captain Robert Taylor. "We don't enjoy asking people to leave their homes. We understand what a burden that is. We so appreciate that the majority of the folks were cooperative with that."

Captain Anthony Rio was in charge of the evacuations in Seeley Lake. He said that in his 20 years in law enforcement there are only a handful of years where he has been involved in evacuations, "so we are not very practiced. We were really trying to error on the side of caution."

Rio said that they have a good end-of-action critiquing process that will help them get better at doing evacuations in the future.

Clearwater Resource Council President Jon Haufler presented on how fire has been and will be a part of the Seeley Lake environment and how the community can become more fire adapted. He shared about fire ecology of the area and how historically there is only a small percent of the landscape that burned in the lethal fire regime.

Today Haufler said a much higher percentage of fires burn in the high severity and lethal fire regimes. This is because of the lack of fire for the last 100 years making the forests denser. Climate change has also affected the fire regime by creating longer and drier fire seasons, drier fuels and more extreme fire behavior. In areas that used to serve as fire breaks because they were moister, now the fire burns right through.

Haufler recommends using fuel mitigation to reduce the fire severity and intensity in the area.

The Seeley-Swan Fuels Mitigation Task Force has been in existence since 2004. It is a collaborative group that is working towards making the Seeley-Swan the most fire adapted community possible. The Task Force provides fuel mitigation around the homes and has provided $4 million since starting in 2004. They also provide home assessments in collaboration with Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to help private landowners fire proof their home. The agencies are working to reduce fire hazard on their lands.

"We have to recognize that we live in a fire prone area so we must do what we can for the next fire when it comes along," said Haufler. Haufler encouraged people to get in touch with CRC or Swan Valley Connections if they are interested in fuels mitigation work on their land. Visit http://crcmt.org/fuels/ for more information.

"I want to thank you all again for your patience, endurance and your strength that I witnessed in this community. It was pretty amazing," said Feigley. "I know this was a really tough summer. We are all a part of this team. We live in this fire-adapted community and we need to figure out how we are going to be a fire-resilient community in the future. We need your help to do that."

Written comments were taken from the audience and addressed to the panel. Questions are in bold with the panel response following.

Considering how dry the year was, why was the fire allowed to progress the way it did? Feigley responded that the fire progressed the way it did because it was so dry. Their strategy was value driven and used direct, indirect and point protection tactics based on the highest probability of success. "We didn't let the fire progress. We tried to work with the fire and be successful in that value driven strategy."

Explain the difference between the DNRC and the Forest Service's goals for fire suppression? DNRC Clearwater Unit Manager Kristen Baker-Dickinson said DNRC is driven by a direct, aggressive suppression strategy in both their initial and extended attack.

Ward said when a fire is human-caused on Forest Service protection it is 100 percent suppression. On large fires that are not human caused, each flank of the fire can have a different objective.

"We have a little more latitude within the policy of our agency to take actions," said Ward. "The way it plays out in reality in Montana is we often don't have the resources to put on a flank that has lower values at risk. We have to focus our efforts on the flanks where those values are."

Why was structure protection set up on Highway 83 nearly two weeks prior to the homes around the Seeley Lake Airport and north Double Arrow Ranch even though those were the areas the teams repeatedly said were the areas most threatened? Ward said she assumes they were progressing from one end of the fire to the other and felt that they had enough time and space to get the structure protection in place. Seeley Lake volunteer Randy Gazda said that there were 20 houses along Highway 83 versus 1,200 on Double Arrow and in the main part of town. Gazda said the first day, the Seeley Lake fire engine with three people was the entire structure protection division. While he was not on the fire when the structure protection was put in place on Highway 83, Gazda said, "There was an opportunity along Highway 83 to deal with those limited number of structures with the limited resources they had."

How many acres were burned in the wildfire and how many burned because of back burns? Feigley said the largest burnout operation was 6,000 acres north of Cottonwood Lakes road in the Dunham Creek and Little Shanley area. She estimated that there was probably 2,000 acres more burned on Mt. Morrell and other acres burned to straighten the line. Feigley estimated it was less than 10,000 total acres of the 160,000 acre fire.

Why didn't the Forest Service open the gate to access Florence Lake when the fire started? Feigley said the road was opened to get equipment in and have an escape route for the firefighters.

What is the budget for fuel mitigation and how is that spent? It seems like that is not being done and that is why the fires have so much fuel. LNF Supervisor Tim Garcia said nationally the Forest Service spends a little more than 50 percent of their budget on fire suppression. The LNF has the second highest fire activity in the northern region. Because of this, they get $1-$1.5 million more to treat acres across the LNF's 2.5-3 million acres. Garcia said they focus their efforts in the Wildland Urban Interface in adjacent public forestland near communities at risk.

How many illegal drone operators were detained? Captain Anthony Rio said that only one drone operator was detained and arrested. He was flying his drone by Rovero's.

Rio added that Montana code does not speak directly to drone operations in a temporary flight restriction area but federal law addresses it. The investigations for the incursions were all turned over to Federal Law Enforcement Officer Tyler Robinson.

How were the Seeley Lake and Ovando Fire Departments involved in planning for and implementing the structure protection along the North Fork of the Blackfoot and around Coppers Lake? Ovando Fire Chief Dan Masse said his volunteers were in the middle of that. They used Forest Service specifications for what was set up and they helped identify water sources. Masse said he was involved in home assessments and deciding which structures were defensible. Gazda responded that while Seeley Lake Fire Chief at the time Bob Vanden Heuvel was involved in the meetings, he did not think Seeley Lake was involved in that area since it was Ovando's district.

How were the mutual aid agreements set up between DNRC and the local fire departments? What resources were available if needed? Baker-Dickinson said that the intent of mutual aid agreements that are set up by the local fire departments prior to the fire season is to help other departments "when they are having a bad day. One of the struggles that we faced were the large fires in the surrounding area and relatively limited resources. Everyone was having a bad day."

Baker-Dickinson said DNRC provided engines as they could to help assist with structure fire protection for the Liberty and Rice Ridge fires. They also helped provide financial compensation and overhead assistance to help provide support.

Gazda added that Potomac, Condon and East Missoula were on call multiple nights and staged at the Seeley Lake Fire Departments during the three major weather events. "Our neighbors were definitely good for us."

How was the local fire department involved in the design and implementation of the structure protection plan? Current Seeley Lake Interim Fire Chief Michael Greer said that, because he was not here during the Rice Ridge fire he could not speak with any authority of what went on. For the department, structure protection is the primary goal for the department and it acts in an advisory capacity when needed.

Fire Management Officer and Northern Region Type 2 Incident Commander John Thompson said that while a lot of the structure protection was already in place when his team arrived, the third Incident Management Team on the fire, they did go to the local department. He said that his team had a structure protection specialist that integrated involving law enforcement and removing people from the area so firefighters can operate more efficiently.

How were the local sheriff's deputies involved in planning for the implementing the evacuations? Captain Rio said that Sergeant Bob Parcell and Deputy Mike Sunderland were great resources as well as Seeley-Swan Search and Rescue. "Everyone was local, everyone knew the roads and the lay of the land. We paired up the outsiders with someone local," said Rio. "I know I could not have done it without Sergeant Parcell or Deputy Sunderland."

Captain Taylor said that moving forward they are going to engage the local Sergeants more because they know the capacity, skill level and what their deputies are most suited to do. "They are our go-to folks."

Is there a rural disaster plan for communities in Missoula County? Director of Emergency Services Coordinator Adriane Beck said the Office of Emergency Management houses the Emergency Operations Plan for the entire county. The plan aggregates the known and possible risks and assigns the appropriate agencies as the lead in the situations. "We aim to have a plan that is flexible and scalable depending on what is going on primarily that we have the right players assigned to be in charge based on their statutory authority and the resources they can bring to the table."

Was the day the east side of Highway 83 was evacuated due to a back burn? "No it was not," said Thompson about Aug. 28, 2017, a day he will not soon forget. He said that the term firefighters use is burning out. Thompson further explained that one of the major challenges with the Rice Ridge fire was the irregular edge. "It makes is susceptible to wind from any direction," said Thompson. "From the first day we got on the fire we were trying to straighten out that line because we needed a straight line to work off of and give us protection for Seeley Lake."

Thompson walked through the events of Aug. 28. There was a finger of fire coming down the hill and the firefighters were trying to keep up with it. "We lost the race and we couldn't keep up," said Thompson. The fire got into a pocket of fuel, torched off the trees sending spots across the fireline that was already in place, "Then it was off to the races. We made the decision to contact the Sheriff's department because we weren't sure we were going to catch it or not." Thompson said he is convinced that it was because of the air support that kept the fire from coming into Seeley Lake.

Are their restrictions for back burning on red flag wind warning days? Thompson said there is nothing in policy but "there is a common sense element in firefighting. From my experience, on a red flag day, we would not be throwing a lot of fire on the ground but I'm not saying there are situations that you would have to do that since it is your only course of action."

What soil issues runoff, surface water, sedimentation will we expect? What will be done to mitigation and minimize this problem? Feigley shared information about the BAER team that assessed the risks to soils, burn severity, steepness of slope, proximity to values at risk, identify hazards and risk to areas on the fire. A variety of treatments were proposed and some were completed this fall. Others will be completed this spring and summer. Feigley said a mid-summer thunderstorm is the biggest concern for areas on the Rice Ridge fire with a rain on snow event also being a concern.

What technologies are being used to notify homeowners in case of an evacuation or is it all done by going to homes? Is that efficient? Taylor said that going to homes is how the Sheriff's Office likes to do evacuations because they want to talk to people face-to-face, give them information and tell them what to do.

Adriane Beck said that 95 percent of the area is registered in Smart911, the mass notification system for any life, safety issue. This is extremely high compared to the national average that is less than 10 percent. If a situation rises to a higher level, they can use the same system forcing alerts to cell phones and sending the alert to land lines even to residents who have not pro-actively signed up. It also activates the emergency notification system that scrolls across the TV screen and NOA weather radio system.

Is there an independent After Action Review being done? If not why? Beck said that a lot of agencies conduct their own internal After Action Reviews.

Ward said there are a lot of levels of reviews that occur in the Forest Service. Eight of the nine large fires on the Lolo National Forest spent enough money and burned enough acres to trigger a large fire review. She expects to find out which fires will have the review and receive the schedule in the next couple of months.

Reviewers come from the Washington, D.C. office and look at how money was spent and how the fire was fought. The findings are captured in the report that help fire managers learn what went well and recommendations of what to do better in the future.

Missoula Community Media Resource (MCAT) recorded the meeting at no cost. The video is available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR0dro5DB2o, will be available on http://www.mcat.org on Channel 189 and will air on MCAT's cable channel Charter Spectrum channel 189 April 9 at 6 p.m. and April 12 at 10 p.m.

The Seeley Lake Ranger District, Clearwater Resource Council, Swan Valley Connections and the Seeley Lake Community Foundation sponsored the Rice Ridge Recap.