Latest Lolo Peak Evacuation Order Short Lived

On Sunday, Ravalli County Sheriff Steve Holton announced that hundreds of homes in the path of the Lolo Peak Fire were under evacuation orders, but as of Tuesday, those orders have been reduced to a warning status.

"This morning, in conjunction with Doug Turman's Type One team on the Lolo Peak Fire, we were able to lift those evacuation orders that we put into effect on Sunday," said Sheriff Holton. "The weather event we had anticipated never occurred, and they were able to get some good work done on expanding and making safer some fire lines that had been planned to put into place. So, first thing this morning our first call was to reverse those orders, pull those roadblocks and allow people to go back home."

Holton reminded the returning families that they are still under an evacuation warning.

"We had about 200 homes that had been evacuated, so now with those being back under an evacuation warning, there's about 952 homes that are still under evacuation warning status up the Highway 93 corridor from South Kootenai on the south all the way to West County Line Road."

The Lolo Peak Fire has burned over 47,000 acres and has surpassed the $38.5 million mark in fire suppression costs.