Kaniksu Complex—Tower Fire
Idaho Panhandle and Colville National Forests and Washington DNR
Alaska Incident Mgt. Team —
Tom Kurth, Incident Cmdr.
September 1,
2015, 6:00 a.m.
For
Immediate Release Pete Buist,
907-750-1639 Jill Cobb,
208-443-6835 (msg)
Kaniksu Complex: The Tower Fire, along
with six smaller fires,
is all part of the Kaniksu
Complex. The total acreage of all fires in
the complex is 25,444 acres,
22 percent contained.
Firefighters
are patrolling the smaller fires but the majority of firefighting resources
are assigned
to the Tower Fire.
• Baldy Fire:
located 16 miles north
of Ione, Wash. (515 acres,
95% containment)
• Onata Fire:
located about
8 eight miles east/southeast of Ione (540 acres, 39% containment)
• Hall
Mountain Fire: located on Hall
Mountain (46 acres)
• Grease Creek Fire: located
south of Hall Mountain (615
acres)
• Slate Creek (1 acre) and South Fork Slate Creek
Trail
(125 acres): located near the northwest boundary of Salmo-Priest
Wilderness
Current Resources:
The number of firefighters
is 761. Equipment includes: 16 crews,
12 dozers, 23 engines, 9 water tenders, 1 Air
Attack, 1 skidgen, 2
helicopters and 3 Blackhawks for medical
transport.
Tower Fire:
Size: 24,021
acres Containment: 13 %
Strategy: Full
Suppression Situation: Lightning, started
Aug.
11
Location: 17 mi. north of Newport, Wash. and
6 mi. west of Priest Lake, Idaho
Update: The cooler weather with
higher humidity that followed Sunday’s rainfall
led to minimal fire behavior on
the Kaniksu Complex’s
seven
fires
Monday. Firefighters
used these favorable conditions to secure, extend
and mop up firelines.
On the Tower Fire, firefighters were able to
secure existing fireline and construct new
line directly along the fire’s edge,
particularly on
the eastern and western flanks of
the fire. Better weather also
allowed fire
managers
to observe and map
the northern edge of the fire,
including two spot fires near Fourth
of July
Peak. The increased acreage for the fire is due
to better mapping of this area,
where Saturday’s
winds pushed the fire northward
approximately three miles. Preparations
have begun to extend
fireline around this part
of the fire.
Crews also
made significant
progress in constructing fireline
and mopping up a 15-acre slop-over on the
northern edge of the Onata Creek Fire.
Due
to their success, fire managers plan on reassigning some crews
from this fire to the
Grease Creek Fire,
where firefighters
prepared an anchor point from
which to start construction
of containment line.
They
also improved road access and
began
construction of a helispot
to support additional resources that
will be assigned to
the fire.
The Hall Mountain
Fire showed minimal
growth
on the high rocky ridges above Sullivan Lake.
• The Priest Lake, Idaho, area and Highway 57 are open to
all traffic. All businesses along
with federal
and
state campgrounds at
Priest Lake are open.
• There
are no mandatory evacuation orders for these fires. If an evacuation order were issued,
it would be called a Level
3 Evacuation,
which means
it is time to go.
• The
Big Meadow/Squaw Valley
area was reduced to
a Level 1 Evacuation Alert Sunday
afternoon,
Aug. 30. 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.
• A
Level 1 Evacuation Alert remains in place for the north Hwy 57 corridor that includes the
Nordman area
and
the west side of Priest Lake.
• A Level
1 Evacuation Alert remains for the Bear Paw area and the south Hwy
57 corridor from
Priest River north to Dickensheet Road.
This alert includes the west side of Priest Lake.
The Level
1 Evacuation for Hwy 57 has been issued because fire managers are aware that Hwy
57 is the main route south from the Priest Lake community. It
is not because of imminent fire danger to
the area.
• A Level
1 Evacuation Alert is
still in effect for two
central Pend Oreille County, Wash,
areas: the Best Chance residential area
and
a corridor on the east side of the Pend Oreille River, starting at the intersection of Le Clerc Creek Road and North Le Clerc Road south to a half mile south of the Usk bridge.
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