By Mel Crichton EBS COLUMNIST
Big Sky has been lucky. Although we are well into a hot summer, there have been no wildfires near us. Our current fire risk is MODERATE, so we aren’t totally in the clear, but we can thank Mother Nature for the reprieve. The rains, some of them intense, have kept most of our foliage green and lush, meaning there will be more fuels when it gets dry. And some days have also been hot. The breezes that made the heat bearable also increased our risk of wildfire by drying out potential fuels, creating higher fire risk the longer the heat and winds continue.
If you’ve been “tuned in” to our wildfire message, you’ve recently seen Red Flag warnings on your phone. You’ll recall that the National Weather Service issues those warnings when temperatures and winds are high and humidity is low, meaning conditions are right for a wildfire to start. Campers, smokers, off-road motorists and chainsaw users must be extra careful about sparks. A live cigarette tossed out a window can create a disaster. If you didn’t receive an alert, you can sign up for countywide Everbridge alerts on the Fire Adapted Big Sky Wildfire Hub. If you are visiting Big Sky, you can text “Big Sky” to 888777 and be signed up for alerts for the rest of the month.
So we’ve had some luck, but for the mountains down in Utah, not so much. Too much of Utah is on fire, and fortunately the prevailing winds have kept that smoke away from us. But weather is fickle, and we are entering the hotter and drier part of the summer.
Whether you attribute global warming to humans or not, one thing is true: weather is getting extreme, and rain patterns are changing. August holds a higher probability of wildfire here in southwest Montana, and we need to be prepared.
Wildfire ambassadors, like myself, have been working hard to prepare Big Sky for the fire that may come at any time. In June we held our first free Wildfire Film Fest for a sold-out house at The Waypoint. The films all were informative, a few were a bit scary, but most attendees felt better about preparing for that big fire afterward. One film was a crucial tutorial on how to drive to safety in a wildfire situation. The message—head downhill, because fire usually likes to go uphill.
In mid-July we held a free showing of “The Lost Bus”, an intense action movie about the Paradise, California fire starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrara. It shows much of what can go wrong when a fire hits, and likely scared some folks in the audience. But wildfire doesn’t need to be so scary—once you know how to react to wildfire emergencies, you can turn to action instead of panic.
In the past few months we trained 19 of our 30 Neighborhood Wildfire Ambassadors on the basics of wildfires, home protection, smoke safety and evacuation. Your NA can help you to understand and wade through the many aspects of making your homesite safe from wildfire and keeping your family alive. If you don’t know who your neighborhood ambassador is, shoot me an email.
One of our ambassadors lives in Meadow View. Dakota Nelson has worked with his HOA and Big Sky Fire Department to arrange an upcoming fire risk mitigation project on the hillside behind the Meadowview complex. Look for a special report in an upcoming issue.
If you’d like to know more about our wildfire ambassador program, let me know. If you can help out with the costs, that’s great! The Big Sky Rotary Club helps us by passing along donations for wildfire outreach to our program. To donate, go to bigskyrotary.com and click on “wildfire preparation” in the “donate” section.
Mel Crichton acts as neighborhood ambassador coordinator for Fire Adapted Big Sky. He may be reached at kj9c@comcast.net.
