Saddle Creek Fire update

After reporting on A1 of the Leader the "tame" fire season, Lake County saw its first "significant" fire start on Wednesday.

The Saddle Mountain Fire located three miles west of Arlee is now estimated at 300 acres. The fire’s origin is suspected arson and is currently under investigation.
The fire started near some slash piles in low elevation and has now reached heavy thick timber consisting of ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, and western larch, a Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes press release said.
Currently, three 20-person crews, two helicopters, two single engine air tankers, two bull-dozers, two-skid genes, and numerous fire engines from the CSKT and local volunteer fire departments are dispatched to Saddle Mountain.

The minimal smoke could be seen from Polson, but was skirted the valley around the Mission Mountains. It seems like smoke from the Kootenai Creek fire west of Stevensville might also be mingling with it.

It's very nerve wracking to have such an early deadline. All of the Leader pages have to be uploaded to a outside server by midnight on Tuesdays, but our paper doesn't hit the stands until Wednesday mornings. Most mail subscribers don't get it until the afternoon.
So, of course, when fires start on Wednesday, the news enters what we call the black hole of early deadline.
Because the press Kalispell prints several weeklies and a daily, we can't move our deadline ahead. It does take time to transport the papers from up north. But when information moves as fast as it does today, it's hard line to walk.
The internet does give us a good outlet now to be able to bring updated information from fires, etc. to the readers.
We'll keep you updated on the Saddle Creek fire as information becomes available.