Why we don't play with matches (photo stolen from the Missoulian. Never fear, copyright lawyers, it shall be replaced as soon as I get the pictures from my dad's camera.)So I was at work this evening, about to start cleaning the party room, when my boss comes in and stares out the glass wall facing east. I come over to see what he's looking at, and half of Mt. Sentinel is black and smoking. According to the janitor, the fire had been burning for no more than an hour, but the flames had already moved almost all the way to the top of the hill. There was a huge cloud of smoke up near where the trees start.
I biked home past numerous people who had come out of their houses to stand and stare - the only thing to impede the view in most of Missoula is the trees. People had gathered in streets and parks in order to get a better view of the blackened hillside with smoking edges and the occasional glimpse of flame. Some have even hauled out the lawnchairs and beers so as to enjoy the show in maximum comfort. It's almost like people coming out to watch the fireworks on the fourth of July. (And no, the proximity to that holiday is not necessarily coincidental. Fireworks set the other hill on fire around this time last year and this is hardly the first time part of Mt. Sentinel has burned.) This is a major event in a town like Missoula, and people are definitely making the most of it. When I got home, even my parents were out standing in the street in front of our house, my dad happily snapping pictures.
As it gets later, it's easier to see the flames. By the time I got home, the wind had died down a bit and they were becoming partially visible. The smoke continued to dissipate as it got darker, colder and less breezy, so that just before I came in to go to bed, around 10:30, the flames formed a few glowing stripes up and down the mountain's face.
There were three fire trucks that could be seen in the middle of the hillside, one well into the blackened patch. Now they are only a row of glowing lights. One helicopter was making water runs, but the darkness has put a stop to that. This is a ridiculously small response to a fire of this size, but supposedly a lot of our firefighters and gear are fighting blazes in northern California at the moment. (In exchange, Missoula is getting whiffs of smoke from those fires.) Hopefully we'll have some of them back tomorrow, since its supposed to be windy. Unfortunately, we always seem to need our firefighters from July 4th on till sometime in the middle of September.
New West and the Missoulian both have articles on the fire already. At the moment, New West has more information and is more up to date. Apparently a couple of kids started it. Fortunately no people or houses seem to be in immediate danger. I'll bet the M trail is gonna be closed for the season, though...
Midnight update: I went out for a last minute viewing before I go to sleep. The smoke has drifted down into the valley, a sure portent of un-fun running tomorrow, but most of the fire has either died down or moved to the back side of the mountain. Over in the west, though, the moon looms low in the sky, glowing orange.
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