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Montana governor says U.S. cut money for fire suppressionAgriculture secretary defends administration
HELENA, Montana (CNN) -- As firefighters braced for Sunday night winds that threaten to intensify Western wildfires, Montana Gov. Marc Racicot lashed out at the Clinton administration, saying it had failed to adequately fund fire management.
The Republican governor told "Fox News Sunday" that the Department of Interior's budget request for fire suppression this fiscal year was down 19 percent. "Then the White House reduced it another 6 percent." Racicot said. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman defended the administration, saying it had actually increased the money spent preparing for fires. "We're spending today, depending upon which agency of government, significantly more money on fire preparedness and treatment than we were spending in 1993," Glickman said on the program. "I think the real issue is that we have a situation that has been unparalleled in the last 50 years right now, and that has to do with what I call 'the perfect storm' phenomenon of weather and fuel loads." Glickman was referring to the undergrowth in forest which, if not burned by naturally occurring fires, can build up and fuel bigger blazes. "We have the hottest, driest weather in perhaps 50 years; we have thousands of lightning strikes an hour; we have 300 new fires every day in the West, largely because of lightning strikes," Glickman said. Racicot said the fire danger was something that "the administration knew about, that all of us have known about for a long period of time." He denied that Western governors were using the fire issue to hurt Vice President Al Gore's political chances as the Democratic nominee in this year's presidential race against Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the GOP nominee. "Anyone that would politicize this issue, with the tragedy that's confronting the people of the West, virtually all of them, would be outrageous," Racicot said. Red flag warnings in four statesMeanwhile, red flag warnings were issued Sunday in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming as an unpredictable weather system threatened to whip up strong winds, the National Interagency Fire Center reported. Across the country Sunday, there were 79 large wildfires burning more than 1.6 million acres in 12 Western states and Florida. Seven large fires were sparked in the past 24 hours, and six fires were contained. While the number of fires decreased from 82 to 79, the acreage burning increased from about 1.5 million across on Saturday. Firefighters trying to contain the Skalkaho complex blaze east of Hamilton, Montana, were pulled off the line Saturday after high winds caused a massive flare-up. Winds around the Skalkaho fire were clocked at 50 mph on ridge tops. A second shift of firefighters from North Carolina managed early Sunday to slow the fires' spread in some areas or to steer them back into areas already burned. This was accomplished either by lighting back fires, igniting underbrush to deny an advancing fire of needed fuel, or by dousing hot spots where that could be done safely. Winds were expected to pick up again as night falls in the Western United States, threatening to fan the flames again. With no relief in sight, firefighters are focusing efforts more on protecting people than fighting fires, a fire official said. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) spokesman Jim Stires said the fires seem to getting worse by the day. "We don't have any short-term or long-term break in the forecast," Stires said Saturday. "We're looking at a couple of frontal passages within the next week and we're very concerned about wind. "It's really almost the new paradigm in firefighting, wildland firefighting," he said. "It's more community protection at this point than it is actual containment and control." Montana wildfires merge into huge blazeChief among the converging blazes is a fire complex in Montana, in which two wildfires merged in the Bitterroot Valley and along the Continental Divide. Together, the Bitterroot Valley and Mussigbrod fires in the Big Hole River drainage became the biggest blaze in the United States, covering an estimated 247,000 acres, according to E. Lynn Burkett of the NIFC in Boise, Idaho. "That is the biggest fire complex in the region. It's a lot, and with a fire of that size and magnitude it will take a significant fall weather event to stop it -- like rain or snow," she said. Both the Bitterroot Valley and Mussigbrod fires were started by lightning on July 31. The fires have destroyed about 70 dwellings. Reporting from Hamilton, Montana, on Sunday, CNN's Greg Lefevre said the conflagration could be seen 12 miles away. The inferno in the Bitterroot National Forest is near a mountain community on Hamilton's rural outskirts. The area has been evacuated. High winds from a cold front caused the Bitterroot Valley's Skalkaho complex fire, burning to the east of Hamilton, to explode into a massive flare-up on Saturday afternoon. So dangerous was the flare-up that the fire's incident commander ordered his crews -- including the expert "hotshot team" -- to retreat because the towering 200-foot flames were advancing so quickly. On Saturday, a "red flag" alert was posted, warning Montana and surrounding states to brace for a weekend of scattered dry thunderstorms -- lightning, gusty winds and low humidity -- as a cold front rolled through, according to a fire official Another Montana fire that continued to rage was the 84,000-acre blaze near Townsend, between Helena and Bozeman, which has closed a major powerline in the past two weeks and separated ranchers from their cattle herds. On Friday, 52,000 gallons of fire retardant halted flare-ups. Information officer Dan Kincaid said the situation would become "dicey" if the wind hit 35 mph, as predicted for this weekend. Ed Bloedel, a Bitterroot National Forest official, said "all fire lines are bracing" for the passing weather front. Evacuations in South Dakota, WashingtonElsewhere in the West, South Dakota's governor urged residents of the central and southern Black Hills to evacuate. And potential evacuation plans were ready for two small towns threatened by a blaze in Washington. In south-central Washington early Saturday, the wind had started gusting above 30 mph as National Guardsmen joined firefighters trying to keep a 110,000-acre blaze away from two small towns. By midday, a ridge stood between the Washington fire and Prosser, a town of about 5,000 people. "We really don't want it to pop over that ridge top," said fire information officer Cynthia Reichelt. An evacuation plan had been prepared for Prosser and nearby Mabton, which has about 1,700 people. "We're prepared for that, but we haven't had to go there yet and hopefully we won't have to," Reichelt said. By Saturday night, firefighters had it half contained and were hoping to have it completely contained by Sunday, said Mark Clemens, spokesman for the state Emergency Operations Center. The blaze was begun by lightning on Wednesday and destroyed 24 buildings on and off the Yakama Nation reservation. Fifty homes were evacuated. New fires roar to lifeIn what is being called the worst Western fire season in 50 years, seven new fires began Friday night and nine were contained, raising the prospect of an even tougher battle in the coming days for the 22,000-plus firefighters across 12 states. The affected states are Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Washington, Oregon, South Dakota and Florida. The risk of large wildfires was also high in Texas, North Dakota and Oklahoma. Idaho to close half a national forestIdaho is suffering 26 major fires covering 700,000 acres, including one that has devastated 180,000 acres of the Salmon-Challis National Forest near the Montana state line. Fire officials said that more of the Salmon-Challis would be closed on Monday, making about half of the 5 million-acre forest out of bounds to hunters, fishermen and campers. And in South Dakota, Gov. Bill Janklow on Saturday urged evacuations in the lack Hills after erratic winds nearly doubled the size of the Jasper forest fire to 30,000 acres. "Yesterday it blew to the east. At night it went west. Today it went north and northeast," Todd Phillipe, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, said Saturday. Janklow declared an emergency and promised to arrest motorists or anyone else who didn't belong in the area. Firefighters got a boost Friday when President Bill Clinton ordered an additional 500 Army troops to the fire-ravaged West. The administration's goal is to have five full battalions, 2,500 military personnel, on the front lines by Labor Day, with one fresh battalion held in reserve. On Monday, a 500-soldier Army battalion that arrived Friday from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, is scheduled to join firefighters after training over the weekend. Another battalion is due to arrive Monday from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. And within the week, a Marine battalion from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, is scheduled to join firefighting efforts. CNN Correspondent Greg Lefevre and The Associated Press contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: In Montana, 2 raging infernos join forces RELATED SITES: National Interagency Fire Center | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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