Hundreds of people filled the Assembly of God Church in Hamilton last night to get the latest news on the Roaring Lion fire burning southwest of town.
Before things got started, Barbara Partney said she started getting ready to evacuate shortly after the fire erupted on Sunday.
"It’s unnerving," Partney said. "It’s surreal. It’s eerily quiet when you are in an area that’s under a stage alert. It’s almost like everybody’s just - they don’t want to disturb, they just want to watch. It's quite an experience. I don’t want to go through it again but I’ll be better prepared next time."
Partney’s house was eventually moved from an alert area to one under evacuation. She came to the meeting last night hoping she’d be allowed to go back home.
"I’m hoping to find out," she said. "I mean I understand if they say, you can’t stay at night. But you can go and assess the situation. Maybe turn some water on. And just see where things are at. Just the not knowing sometimes is the hardest part. Just to be able to see it. Yeah, just to check. Just to check things. It’s still unnerving. You want to know. You want to know."
Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman kicked off the meeting, clearly relieved. After four days of mostly bad news, he was finally able to start doling out some good.
"I think we have a lot of answers for you tonight," Hoffman said. "I think you’re going to find that a lot of things have changed over the last couple of days due to a lot of hard work. By people from, frankly, across the United States that have come to help us in a time of need."
There are now 735 people fighting the Roaring Lion fire, including crews from 15 states outside Montana, coming from as far as Alaska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Undersheriff Steve Holton took the stage next, standing under a big video screen showing an updated map.
"So you see the purple shaded area..." Holton said, waving a laser pointer over the screen.
The purple area was a big chunk of territory north and east of the fire that had been an evacuation area. It was now switched to evacuation warning status.
"We’re not rescinding the evacuation orders," Holton said, "but we are kind of relaxing them back to that Stage 1. And what I kind of like to point out is that means that there’s still a probability that you might have to evacuate, but at least you get to go home."
Next up was Fire Incident Commander Greg Poncin, who was applauded when he said:
"We have attained about 15 percent containment, and that’s demonstrated by the black line on the map."
There was quite a bit of applause last night. The meeting showed that the Bitterroot Valley, though clearly under stress, is remaining positive despite experiencing what Sheriff Hoffman says is the worst fire he’s seen here in 16 years.
People gathered in the big room under the church’s high ceiling acknowledged and offered sympathy and prayers for the people who saw 14 of their homes destroyed, and the many others who still aren’t being allowed back inside the remaining evacuation zones.
No additional homes have been destroyed since Sunday, and the overall tone of the meeting was gratitude, as expressed by one local resident toward its end.
"Tuesday was watching Hell come to town, and they stopped it," she said, referring to firefighters. "God bless you all."
After the meeting, Barbara Partney, who came hoping to hear that she’d be allowed back home, left very happy.
"The meeting was awesome," Partney said. "I think they were very informative. They let us know what is going on. I like that we finally have some direction. And that we can go home and check our place. I still feel bad for these that are out. We’ll just keep them in our prayers. But we got an awesome community."
Also clearly stoked: Pam Zikan
"I have a permit to get back home! Hallelujah, praise the Lord! By coming to the meeting tonight - he showed the map, we were in Stage 2 evacuation as of Sunday, but it looks like we’re Stage 1 now and we can go back up - It feels glorious. I am just so glad. And so thankful we didn’t lose our home. And praying for those poor people that did.
SAKS: Did you get what you wanted to out of the meeting tonight?
ZIKAN: Yes I did, and more than I thought I would. Again I’d just like to hug every fire fighter up there.
SAKS: What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get back home?
ZIKAN: Kiss my house. I said a lot of prayers before I left. So, it’s good. We’re very very thankful.
For all the good feeling, though, the crisis that started up Roaring Lion Road is far from over.
"The next 24 to 48 hours is going to tell us a lot, according to the best information we’re getting from experts," said Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman.
The experts are saying to expect higher temperatures and lower humidity than what’s been seen Wednesday and Thursday, although winds aren’t predicted to be as bad as Tuesday, when the fire nearly doubled in size. It’s now estimated at more than 7,700 acres in size.
The fire’s incident commander says crews are making good progress on fireline, and hope to extend it in the south to an existing road system that should work as a fire break, and toward the area of the Observation fire that burned earlier this summer - that should slow its progress as well.
Still, containment is only estimated at 15 percent now, meaning that most of the Roaring Lion continues to rage in the thick forest southwest of Hamilton.
