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Summary:    

Seth Carbonari’s Type III Incident Management team will take command of the incident today. This team will continue implementing the plan created by the outgoing Incident Management Team.

According to Matt Anderson, Bitterroot National Forest Supervisor, “We ordered the Northern Rockies Team 1 to manage five fires in the wilderness on the Bitterroot Front with uncertainty in the forecast and extreme fire danger. The team not only protected our communities and kept these fires from reaching homes and private property but also left us with a strategy that we can implement for years to come in this area.  The indirect lines that we’re completed, the Strategic Risk Assessment, the over 1000 structure assessments, and work with the community over the last week has propelled our ability to manage fire in this landscape. My commitment is to continue this work with our community and partners to further increase our probability of success in suppressing fires.”

Outgoing Incident Commander Doug Turman of Northern Rockies Team 1 highlighted the work performed since the team arrived on September 14th. According to Turman, “Our firefighters constructed an indirect control line on Forest Service ground in the vicinity of the Forest Service boundary generally between Blodgett Canyon and Gash Creek.” According to Turman, the line was built using various techniques, including mechanical shaded fuel breaks, improvements (limbing and brush removal) along established trails and roads, and fuel breaks connecting natural features such as rock faces. When combined with prescribed burning or firing operations on future wildland fires, this work will help keep communities and private property as safe as possible.

Work performed by NR Team 1 also included building a strategic plan for the duration of the incident beyond. Incident Commander Turman stressed the importance of cooperation in preparing the plan. “It was critical to have local input into our plan. The strategic values the local agency administrators and cooperators identified were key to planning for our work on this incident.”   

The Forest has implemented trail closures across the fire area. Refer to the Bitterroot National Forest website for details https://www.fs.usda.gov/bitterroot   

InciWeb: Mill Lake Fire: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8392/

Bitterroot National Forest Website:  https://www.fs.usda.gov/bitterroot

Air Quality: https://fire.airnow.gov/