Hamilton Fire :Roaring Lion Fire surpasses 2,000 acres, 500 homes in danger
The Roaring Lion Fire south of Hamilton has now burned an estimated 2,000 acres and approximately 500 homes have been evacuated or warned they may have to evacuate soon, according to fire officials.
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The Ravalli County Sheriff Office has also issued Stage 1 notifications in the Lost Horse Road area.
The Ravalli County Emergency Operations Center is now open and can be reached at (406) 375-6650. You can call for information on evacuation, evacuation shelters and livestock emergency placement.
The Red Cross is offering up some tips for folks who need to evacuate -- or may be asked to evacuate -- as crews battle the Roaring Lion fire.
HAMILTON – A minimum of 500 homes are under orders to evacuate due to a fast-moving fire that already had claimed a number of structures as it spread across 2,000 acres southwest of Hamilton Sunday.
“We’re just trying to get people out of the way now,” said Bitterroot National Forest spokesman Tod McKay. “We can rebuild homes. We need to get people out of this area.”
The fire started about one mile up Roaring Lion Road about a mile from a national forest trailhead.
“It was first noticed probably at about 2 p.m. and by a quarter to 3 it was encroaching on homes,” said Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman. “We skipped stage one evacuations and went immediately to stage two, which is ‘get out of here.’”
An estimated 200 homes were directly threatened by the fire Sunday night. Firefighters said they have confirmation that buildings have burned in the Judd Creek area but won't have a total number of buildings lost until Monday.
Hamilton Fire Chief Brad Mohn said the fire has been so intense that volunteer firefighters have been forced to fall back several times.
“We have had limited opportunities to put out spot fires near homes, but the conditions are very volatile,” Mohn said. “It’s not safe to directly attack the fire. There are several hundred structures threatened.''
At 6 p.m., Hoffman said he had received verification of structures on fire in the Judd Creek area but won't have a specific number of buildings destroyed until Monday.
“We are asking for people to cooperate,” he said. “We can’t let people back up there…this is a big area. If you pull the radar, you’ll see the plume is huge. We’ve got fairly steady high winds up in the canyons and this fire has just launched.”
The Red Cross has set up two shelters for evacuees at the First Baptist Church at Lewis and Cooper lanes and at The River Church at 354 Cooper Lane in Hamilton. Gates are open on the Ravalli County Fairgrounds for livestock. ABC Acres in Hamilton is also accepting livestock displaced from the fire.
Retired West Fork District Ranger Dave Campbell’s first hint that something was wrong came when the sun turned red Sunday afternoon while he was taking a break from his annual chore of stacking firewood “far away from the house.”
Campbell knew the area where the fire was burning had a heavy fuel load. When he could see the flames, he noticed they were whirling.
“You could tell there was very unstable air,” he said. “When you see those fire whirls, you know it’s going to be a very difficult fire to fight.”
Campbell’s home is surrounded by defensible space. He planned to stay and sprinkle his home, but the power went out. “I didn’t have a choice (about leaving) at that point,” he said. “The hardest part about this is I know that some of my neighbors have lost their homes. I might have too.”
Hoffman said the fire apparently started near the bottom of the drainage and spread immediately, driven by gusting winds.
“At this point, we don’t know how it started,” he said. “Obviously, we have had no lightning. It took off too hard and too fast for anyone to investigate that at this point.”
McKay said he's been in the Bitterroot for seven seasons and has "never seen a fire take off and burn so quick.''
“By the first call, it was already ripping,” McKay said. “It got on the
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