Montana Wildfires

[RonMT]

Just letting you folks know that it is real bad here. If you are coming I would advise waiting as they have listed the air Hazardous to breath. My wife is the County Health Nurse and she has been going nut's all day trying to make sure the eldery have what they need to breath. Cook City is part of her area and it is just as bad if not worse there so that means the park is bad to.
This fire has burned over 284 square miles has burned 29 homes and many out building and livestock and they do not even have it close to contained. I can't leave my basement because of my breathing. So you are warned stay away if you do not have to be here. Go else were to fish for your own safty. Here in town I can't hardly see the houses on the other hill about 800 yards away. I wish I had better news. I will let you know when it get's better. I know it was on the national news this evening. Ron

[nighthawk]

Ron,
Please be very careful. If authorities ask you to evacuate please do so. You, your wife and all of the folks suffering through these horrible fires are in my thoughts and prayers. Wish I could have sent you some of that good, soaking rain we had last week.

[LadyFisher]

Ron, thanks so much for the report - we've been very concerned, and the national media yesterday said the fire was in "Big Time" we knew it was the Big Timber area; the media is so sloppy they wouldn't know a horse from a elk.

Please be careful. And an extra hug for your wife!

[RonMT]

Hey LF- A little more info for you. There are two fires in Paradise valley. 1 up Pine Creek and one up Big Creek. There is one south of Big Timber Two in the south east Corner of the park and the real big one over by Absarokee. Both Absarokee and Nye were evacuated. They are afraid that the fire on the Boulder may join up with the fire over by Nye and if that happens it will be a lot worse. All fires as far as I know were caused by lighting. There are 59 fires burning in the western US and have burnt over 800 thousand acres. That was the report this evening. We are not in harms way here in Livingston but I am afraid others are. The smoke is real bad as I have said.
It seems a shame that all that timber has to go to waste and all the people that have lost homes because they won't let any thinning or brushing be done. It seems to me both sides lose. And we all lose the forests we love. There sould be a middle ground but there never seems to be. People would rather see it all burn than to see it thinned out and brushed out. Shame. Ron

[DG]

http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf

and

www.inciweb.org

both are good wildland fire sites. Inciweb has links to maps and updates on specific fires, while the sitrep gives good overall summaries for regions of the US.

Cookie

[crook33]

Another excuse to tie more flies? Like you needed one Ron. Hang in there. Rich

[RonMT]

Just an up date. The smoke is finally out of here after two weeks of it being so thick you counldn't see very far. We have a north west wind today. It is supposed to change tomorrow and we will get the smoke again. You can see the fire down on pine creek over the mountains to the south of town. Looks like a big bomb went off. I would say the smoke is reaching about 14 thousand feet seeing that the mountains between us and the fire are over 10 thousand and the smoke is a lot higher.
The news said they are getting the Darby fire undercontrol do to the cool weather we have had this past few days. They are saying that on Thursday it is supposed to rain with temps in the 60's and be that way until the weekend. If so that should help a lot. Here's wishing? Ron

[LadyFisher]

Hey Ron,
Livingston was on the news crawler a little bit ago,
said they had told 325 homes to evacuate
What is really happening? Are you okay?