No Stage One Fire Restrictions for Western Montana… Yet

Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst announced that Stage One fire restrictions were imminent after the first of August, but they never happened. DNRC Public Information Officer Jordan Koppen says the original plan was to initiate them last Monday.

"Yeah, it was actually on Monday last week [August 5], and then we postponed it to see what the weather would bring," Koppen said. "In some parts of the southwestern part of the state we received up to a half inch of rain and some pretty low temperatures, so we decided to stay off."

The topic will be back up for discussion today, but Stage One restrictions are now much more unlikely.

"We're going to meet on a conference call on Monday [August 12] around 10 o'clock and a bunch of agencies get on the call and talk about what would be needed if we go into restrictions and if there's cause. If need be, we'll either go in [to restrictions] or stay out."

Koppen wasn't certain, but said that it has probably been about seven years since Missoula has had a summer without stage one restrictions. Although not in Stage One restrictions, western Montana forests are still extremely susceptible to fire and all need to be cautious