DNRC

DNRC setting up readerboard in Missoula to encourage residents in wildland urban interface to prepare for wildfires.

Jordan Koppen with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation will be setting up a reader board just past the Grant Creek Town Pump starting at 2:00 p.m. on Friday to encourage area residents to sign up for home visits to prepare their properties for wildfires.

In the next few days, the National Weather Service is calling for temperatures to top 100 degrees in western Montana, bringing with them high fire danger.

The wet weeks of spring are long passed, and the dry days of summer are here, bringing with them increasing wildfire danger and some seasonal policy changes.

Missoula Rural Fire was called out at about 2:30 on Monday afternoon to a report of a residential structure fire at 1865 Nut Hatch Drive just off Cote Lane west of Missoula.

Monday was a fine day for fire training, so the Frenchtown, Florence and Missoula Rural Fire Districts worked all day with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) for helicopter water drop training.

Following last year's devastating Roaring Lion Fire, which destroyed 16 homes and cost millions of dollars to fight, the DNRC is encouraging homeowners to prepare their homes for wildfire season.

After what has been a real Montana-style winter with lots of snow and bitter cold, the first signs of spring are appearing, the start of Grizzly football spring drills, and open burning season.

As part of Fire Prevention Week from October 9 through 15, sponsored by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Keep Montana Green is sponsoring their annual Wildfire Prevention Art Contest.

With the sudden arrival of fire season in Missoula due to the Colorado Gulch Fire, many homeowners who were evacuated were looking at their homes through their rear view mirrors wishing they had prepared a defensible space.