Kaniksu Complex—Tower Fire
Idaho Panhandle &
Colville National Forests, Washington DNR Alaska Incident Mgt. Team
— Tom Kurth, Incident Cmdr. AUGUST 25, 2015, 10:00
am
For
Immediate Release Pete
Buist,
907-750-1639 towerfireinfo@gmail.com Jill Cobb, 208-443-6835
(msg)
Kaniksu Complex:
The Tower Fire along and
six smaller fires
located
on the Colville National Forest
are all part of
the Kaniksu Complex.
Total acreage of all fires in the Kaniksu Complex is 11,159 acres. Firefighters
are monitoring the smaller
fires
but the majority of firefighting resources are assigned
to the Tower Fire.
Fires, other than
the Tower Fire
that are included in the Kaniksu
Complex, include
the following:
· Baldy Fire: Located
16 miles
north of Ione,
WA (515
acres)
· Onata Fire: Located
about
8 eight miles
east/southeast
of Ione (300
acres)
· Hall Mountain
Fire:
located on Hall Mountain
(20 acres)
· Grease Creek Fire:
located south of Hall Mountain (75
acres)
· Slate Creek
(1 acre) & South Fork Slate Creek
(1 acre):
located near the NW boundary of Salmo-
Priest
Wilderness
Current Resources: The number of firefighters on
the incident is 682. Equipment includes: 20 crews,
8 dozers, 15 engines, and
7 water tenders,
1 skidgen and 1 helicopter.
Tower Fire:
Current Size:
10,238 acres Containment: 5%
Strategy: Full
Suppression Situation: Lighting, started Aug 11
Location:
17 mi. north of Newport,
Wash.
and 12 mi. southwest of Priest Lake, Idaho
Update: A
significant temperature inversion and heavy smoke blanketed
the Tower Fire for most of
Monday. This layer of smoke prevented the significant
fire movement that had
been expected
with
Red Flag conditions.
While the
fire did not move as much as expected,
it did expand in several
areas. On the northeast
end, the fire moved downhill
and across
the Squaw Valley Road. On the south end, north of
Ojibway Knoll, the fire breached
a previously constructed
dozer
line and hit the road
designated as
control line. The breach was caught
and contained.
There was considerable
activity on the west
side of the fire, including north of
Brown’s Lake in
the
upper reaches
of the Cee Cee Ah drainage. A bit further south,
the main fire spotted over the line near Brown’s Lake. This
3-acre spot
fire was caught and contained
with retardant and quick action
on the part of ground crews.
Military strike
teams
from
Task Force 1st Round were fully integrated with the firefighters
already working
on the Tower and Onata fires today. The first
day
of this new teamwork went
smoothly and was deemed
a success by both military commanders and
the
incident management team.
· Red Flag warnings are in effect for the fire complex area.
· There are no mandatory evacuation orders for these fires.
If that happened,
it would be called
Level 3 Evacuation Order , which means
it is time to go.
· A Level 2 Evacuation Alert remains
for
Big Meadow/Squaw Valley. Simply
stated, Level 2 means you should be
set to leave on very short notice.
· A Level 1 Evacuation Alert remains
for
the Bear Paw area
and
the Hwy 57 corridor from Priest River North.
The
Level 1 Evacuation for Hwy 57
has been issued because fire managers
are concerned that Hwy 57 is the only logical
escape route south from the Priest Lake community. It is
not because of imminent
fire
danger to the
area. In Level
1, residents should be ready to leave
and
should monitor emergency services. Those
with special needs,
pets,
livestock or that need transportation assistance should take early
precautionary
movement to
relocate.
· Priest Lake Area: Highway 57
is open to
all
traffic. All businesses along with Federal and State
Campgrounds at Priest Lake are open.
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