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| Jul 29, 2010 - 06:38 PM |
Queen City News - Helena's FREE Weekly Newspaper |
Helena, Montana |
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Nearly 300 people, including this Blackfeet crew, worked for days to contain the MacDonald Pass fire, which began this past Friday and was in mop-up mode on Tuesday. Residents are still being asked to avoid West Highway 12 if possible. (Photo by Jeff Van Tine)
Helena National Forest officials announced Tuesday morning that they expected the 170-acre MacDonald Pass fire, which began Friday, Sept. 25, about eight miles southwest of Helena, to be fully contained later the same day. They said the fire had burned in 80-90 percent mountain pine beetle-killed lodgepole.
Nearly 300 people were working to put out the fire using 14 engines, five helicopters, three water tenders, five bulldozers and miscellaneous other equipment. The cause of the fire is considered suspicious and is under investigation.
Because of progress toward containment and less active fire behavior on Tuesday, a public meeting that had been tentatively scheduled for Tuesday night was canceled.
Open burning remains closed in both Lewis and Clark and Jefferson counties, officials added.
Homeowners in the fire vicinity are encouraged to clear debris, excess brush and duff away from their homes to create “defensible space”. More information on that can be found at www.firewise.org.
Cooperating agencies on the fire are the Baxendale Volunteer Fire Department, Helena National Forest, Bureau of Indian Affairs, City of Helena and Lewis and Clark County. Sheriff Leo Dutton and Jess Secrest are the unified Incident Commanders.
County officials again asked residents to avoid Highway 12 West due to fire suppression activities and traffic. Protection for the City of Helena water treatment facility and water collection plant was still a high priority.
The changing weather was a big help to firefighting efforts, with a cooler system moving in Tuesday night and lower temperatures and higher humidity forecast for the area. Precipitation in the form of rain and possibly snow at higher elevations was expected by Tuesday evening or Wednesday.
For fire updates, see the national incident Web site at http://www.inciweb.org or call the MacDonald Pass Fire information hotline at 443-3155.
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The Queen City News is published every Wednesday in Helena, MT, by Mossback Media, LLC.
Contents are copyrighted and cannot be used in any form without prior permission from the QCN.
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