This information was received from Ryan Butler, Assistant Fire Management Officer-Operations for the Hungry Horse-Glacier View Ranger District. Note that the Coal Ridge Fire is still about 10 acres . . .
[ Update! All trails in the Coal Ridge Fire vicinity (trails 2, 239 & 4) have reopened. ]
Not much to report on Coal Ridge fire. Yesterday was quiet with no growth and only smoldering was observed. Two cells did go over the fire yesterday and district personnel are hiking up to the fire today to confirm how much rain was received on the fire. As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you have question. Thank You
Coal Ridge Fire (2), August 25, 2022 – USFSCoal Ridge Fire (1), August 25, 2022 – USFS
Coal Ridge Fire burn scar below old Coal Ridge Lookout site, August 24, 2022 – USFS
This information was received from Ryan Butler, Assistant Fire Management Officer-Operations for the Hungry Horse-Glacier View Ranger District. Note that the Coal Ridge Fire is still about 10 acres . . .
Yesterday was pretty uneventful on the Coal Ridge Fire. Cloud cover and high humidity kept fire behavior to smoldering of heavy fuels. Attached are some photos of our recon flight. As you can see in some of the photos north aspects are too wet to support fire. Ground crews will be out on the 317B rd again today and I will report back to you all if there is rain in the rain gauge. Once the T-storms and rain move out of the area, looks like Saturday, we will have a contingent back up on Coal ridge. As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you have question. Thank You.
Coal Ridge Fire – view from south along ridgetop, August 24, 2022 – USFSCoal Ridge Fire Location
Coal Ridge Fire from the Ridge, August 23, 2022 – USFS
This information was just received from Ryan Butler, Assistant Fire Management Officer-Operations for the Hungry Horse-Glacier View Ranger District. Note that the Coal Ridge Fire is listed as a 10 acre blaze this morning . . .
An additional note from late this afternoon: “…no growth was shown on the fire overnight. Wetting rain was confirmed over the fire area and the fire is only smoldering in areas of heavy fuels. More wetting rain is anticipated over the next two days.”
Fire activity on Coal Ridge was brief yesterday. Not much growth observed from the day before. We did order Infrared Mapping last night (NIROPS) but they were unable to fly due to weather. We have an order placed tonight. This will give us a more accurate size and location of heat. Activity was mainly on the ridge top with single and group torching. As we have seen throughout the fire season on the district the north aspects don’t seem to be receptive to fire and we observed no fire on the north slopes in Moran Creek Drainage. We did have district fire folks on the ground yesterday to verify fire activity and difficulty in terrain. They had to take shelter in Moran Patrol cabin in the afternoon when a cell came over with heavy rain and hail. They guessed at least a tenth of rain on the fire. As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you have question. Thank You.
Coal Ridge Fire, August 23, 2022, 1325 – USFSCoal Ridge Fire Location
This information was just received from Ryan Butler, Assistant Fire Management Officer-Operations for the Hungry Horse-Glacier View Ranger District. Note that the Coal Ridge Fire is listed as a 10 acre blaze this morning . . .
Yesterday the Coal Ridge fire was detected by Cyclone lookout. The local Flathead Helitack flew to the fire and gave a size up of: 1acre, torching, spotting, and making short uphill runs. The fire is on the upper third of the slope on a south aspect(see attached photo). Air attack was over the fire and used heavy air tankers and heavy helicopters to attempt to keep the fire from progressing over the ridge and down slope. Due to the steep rocky terrain we determined ground crews would not be successful suppressing this fire using direct tactics. Today we will have personnel hiking in trail 2 from the Moran creek side to assess fire conditions on the ground. We will also be posting signs at the trailhead of trails: 239,2 and 4. We are currently assessing area and trail closures. We will send out more information in the days to come…
The 909 fire was also detected yesterday. Its location is west of Cyclone lake between the 909 road and a decommissioned logging road. This fire is staffed and contained. No issues or concerns.
Coal Ridge Fire LocationCoal Ridge and 909 fire locations – USFS
