'We have enough time to get ahead of it'

Members of the incident management team working on the Ridge Creek Fire spoke Sunday to hundreds of local citizens, many attending a community meeting in Athol in person and others viewing and asking questions via a livestream on the U.S. Forest Service, Idaho Panhandle National Forests’ Facebook page.

The Ridge Creek Fire, which began Aug. 3, as of Sunday involved 4,099 acres of forest system land roughly 3.5 miles east of the north tip of Hayden Lake, along Hayden Creek Road (Forest Service Road 437), from the Ridge Creek drainage south to South Chilco Mountain.

Containment was estimated Sunday to be 19%.

While the fire continues to burn and smoke from wildfires throughout the region continues to fill the skies and affect air quality, speakers at Sunday’s meeting discussed their recent efforts battling the blaze and talked about what they anticipate in the coming days.

“With visibility improving this afternoon, expect air operations to resume over the northeast area of the fire in support of ground crews,” wrote Clark McCreedy, incident management team information officer, in a Sunday morning email update.

Shane Eagan, a National Weather Service incident meteorologist, pointed out during the community meeting that the weather forecast matrix was primarily green and yellow, and no longer nearly all red, the indicator of critical fire weather that’s hot, dry and windy.

Eagan said the region will begin to feel the rain effects of Tropical Storm Hilary, which made landfall Sunday in California, bringing potentially devastating floods to the southwestern U.S.

“The moisture will stream to our area,” Eagan said.

A structure protection specialist working at Ridge Creek explained the role the structure protection group plays and the steps they take to help protect threatened homes, buildings and other valuable assets.

They assess hundreds of homes and evaluate the risks and work with local firefighters to create a plan to defend the properties.

“We do this very rapidly, and when we have a flame front approaching us, we do it even quicker,” the specialist said.

He received a round of applause when he said that with this 4,000-plus-acre fire, no structures have been lost.

Stephani Michelsen-Correa, a scientist with the EPA, provides daily smoke forecasts and air quality monitoring to the incident management team.

“Our air quality took a bit of a nose dive on Friday,” Michelsen-Correa said, adding that there is a large blanket of smoke hanging over the region.

But the smoke impact being seen in the area of the Ridge Creek Fire is attributed to other large fires in the region, she said, and not the Ridge Creek Fire.

“The good news … is that the winds are changing and there is some moisture in the forecast,” she said.

The winds are coming from the east, bringing clean air in, she said, and they are seeing some clearing in the area.

“Even better news, on Tuesday, when we get that moisture, it’s going to knock that smoke out of the air,” Michelsen-Correa said.

Steve Miller, incident commander, spoke to the group and fielded questions from the audience.

When asked if he had any predictions about the Ridge Creek Fire’s ability to progress and threaten, Miller said they have a “loose rope” around the northern part of the fire, and he said he feels very confident about the line they have around the southern end.

“Based on everything we know so far we have enough time to get ahead of it,” Miller said.

An audience member asked Miller if they need any donations for firefighters in the camp.

“We’re being well cared for,” Miller said.

He said there are people who need more than the firefighters in the camp do right now, referring to those affected by the devastating wildfires in Eastern Washington, many who have lost their homes or have been displaced.

“Whatever energy you would put toward caring for us, I would ask that you put it toward caring for them,” Miller said.