Tyler Myers one of 862 wildland firefighters battling fire in the Bitterroot National Forest
Tyler “Tobes” Myers is always ready to answer the call.
Throughout 2012 and into early 2013, Myers, a 2005 graduate of Mountain Lake Public High School, and who earned his degree in Social Work from St. Cloud State University in December 2011, served with the Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa – part of the larger national AmeriCorps. During that tenure, the corps cleared a variety of invasive species of plants and trees and downed trees, as well as cleaned rivers in the two-state area. They were also called up Baudette in northern Minnesota to do some controlled fires. After Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast on October 29, 2012, the local corps answered the call for help. Tyler and a rotation of four teams of 12 were sent to Breezy Point, in the borough of Queens, New York, whose homes and businesses had been battered by both the hurricane and a fire that followed. The teams gutted destroyed houses that were filled with sand and had mold growing everywhere.
And now, the 29-year-old son of Sandy and Kevien Schroeder of Mountain Lake and Craig and Karrie Myers of of Jeffers, is in the thick of his first year as a wildland firefighter. Myers is one of 862 total firefighters on scene working to suppress, control and contain the Roaring Lion Fire in the Darby Ranger District of the Bitterroot National Forest, five miles southwest of Hamilton, Montana. The Bitterroot is in the southwestern corner of Montana, near the Idaho border.
Myers works out of Sula, Montana, located south of both Hamilton – and the Roaring Lion Fire. The “official” fire season began with training and on May 16, but, as tradition holds, it really heated up in late July and early August.
It has been a difficult wildfire-fighting summer season in multiple states across the country, with blazes burning thousands of acres. In addition to Montana, massive firefighting efforts have been underway in California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Kansas, Alaska and South Dakota, as well as Canada and Mexico. Cool and generally moist conditions in May across much of the interior west region of the United States kept fire activity low, according to a National Interagency Fire Center report. However, hot weather late in June allowed fires to develop in grass and brush in the Southwest and parts of the Northwest. The instances of wildfires appeared in other states as the summer heat continued to set in and more “fuels” (thick, dry brush and undergrowth) became receptive to fire.
The fire began last Sunday mid-afternoon, July 31. Fuels for the blaze included timber, grass and understory. Myers notes that it is believed that the fire is human-caused, “as there is no evidence of lightning strike at the origin,” he explains. The investigation to track down the source continues.
To date, 16 residences have been lost to the wildfire, and evacuation orders remain in effect for some areas.
This weekend’s update on Roaring Lion notes that 20% of the fire is now contained. So far, the blaze has reportedly burned 8,249 acres, up 130 acres from Friday, August 5. Progress is being made in knocking down flames, digging lines and battling to contain the blaze, but such work depends heavily on cooperation from Mother Nature. Bad weather arrived this weekend near the fireline. The fear around storms affecting the area lies with relatively low moisture being accompanied by lightning strikes, which could potentially cause more fires to spring up. A thunderstorm parked on top of the fire could additionally bring with it erratic winds and downdrafts that can race in at 50 miles an hour, spreading the fire in every direction.
Myers, of Missoula, Montana – and for now, as part of this seasonal job, also of Sula, Montana – arrived at the fire from the Sula Initial Attack (I. A.) Module Station late in the night of July 31, around 11 p.m. “I has glad I had some fire experience when I was in the Conservation Corps, as we did some burns around Baudette; I knew the tools, the language and a bit about what it all entails,” states Myers.
Early on, fighting a wildfire is, “an ‘air show,’ shares Myers. “When there is low humidity, high temps and winds above 30 miles per hour, they don’t send firefighters in.” So far, fixed wing tankers have delivered 34,000 gallons of retardant, while helicopters have dropped about 1,050,000 gallons of water.
When the wildland firefighters are cleared to enter the fray, they do so with a vengeance. The Sula group has been working to save homes on the north side of Roaring Lion, close to the fire’s origin by Sawtooth Creek. Myers usually drives the engine, a F-550 pick-up truck with a 300-gallon tank of water and pump in its bed, but also works on a handcrew.
The rig works best on grass fires. When the terrain gets rough, and the topography doesn’t allow for the engine to come in close, 2,000 feet of hose lets the crew move into the fire to give it some blasts as water is pumped to the location. The team also includes a Chevy Colorado chase truck and crews that swap people in-and-out.
Handcrews are like the “infantry” of wildland fire forces; their tools, chain saws, shovels and pulaskis (a combination axe and an adze in one head used to both dig soil for a firebreak and chop wood), Their main responsibility is to construct a fireline – a strip of land cleared of flammable materials and dug down to mineral soil – around wildfires to control them, burn out fire areas and mop up after the fire. The goal is to stay one step ahead of the fire, putting the fireline out in front of the flames.
Often while on duty at Roaring Lion, crews stay in a fire camp that has been set up at Hamilton High School, and includes an expansion of tents – for lodging and dining. At other times, Myers returns to Sula – population approximately 37, spread out far-and-wide, homes 1/4-to-one mile apart – to stay in a house shared with other Forest Service employees. Their home is just three miles from the station, making it easy to answer the call. A small grocery store is 17 miles away, so, when he can get back to his “other” home in Missoula, one-and-one-half hours north, Myers stocks up for the next run.
Assisting in the fight are crews from the southwestern United States, including New Mexico, who brought up two engines to backfill. This a return service effort as Montana crews were on a “roll” in New Mexico and Arizona, as well as Alaska, earlier in the summer, when those locations are in the height of their fire season. All of the crews are employed by the National Forest Service and serve on a national rotation as needed.
Crews at Roaring Lion are currently focusing their efforts on mop up and securing containment lines around homes along the eastern side of the fire. They are patrolling the area around structures looking for pockets of smoldering fire and heat. The wildfire firefighters are also continuing to construct firelines upslope above bulldozer lines on the south flank, directing the fire into the old Sawtooth burn, left behind following a September/October 2012 wildfire. With the burndown from the Sawtooth Fire, there isn’t a lot of fuel to feed the blaze in that area, along with rock scree slopes to stop the flames. Dozers additionally continue to make improvements on the contingency line to the south toward the recent Observation Fire.
The western side of the fire, where there are no structures, will be allowed to burn out; the eastern side of the fire, where cities, homes and businesses are located was the major concern.
Full containment is not expected until some time in September.
The Roaring Lion Fire is being managed under the unified command by the Hamilton Fire Department and the Northern Rockies Incident Command Team led by Greg Poncin. Cooperating agencies include the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Northwest Energy, American Red Cross, Montana Department of Transportation and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
Working as a wildlands firefighter – and observing a fire’s burn – Myers has become immersed in Fire Science. “Wildfires are a natural process. Fires are common things. Native Americans and Lewis and Clark knew the importance and necessity of prescribed burning. The burn down clears out the understory of invasive species and noxious weeds, and allows for new regrowth,” explains Myers.
“Amazingly, many plants and trees have adapted; have become ‘fire resilient.’ An excellent example are ponderosa pines. It is all so intriguing,” says Myers. He notes an instance where a forest fire in Washington was burning its way to a nuclear plant, but a prescribed burn lit the mountainside separating the two, with the second fire burned back towards the fireline to halt the spread.
“The Observation Fire was a surprise,” lays out Myers, “but it was in an area that was ready to burn. There had been no fire there for 50-60 years, and the understory was thick. Now that it has burned, that area is a lot safer for the people living there.”
Today’s technology has also had a huge effect on today’s wildfire fight. “Fires now can be mapped livestream, allowing for instant fireline updates,” enthuses Myers. “All sides of a fire can do this.
“I love being outdoors; I feel blessed to be doing this. Yes, I’ll be doing fire for a few years.”
