SEELEY LAKE - Governor Greg Gianforte was at the Seeley Lake Airport on Aug. 2, 2023, to get a briefing from the Northern Rockies Incident Management Team and a helicopter tour of the Colt Fire.
Justin Kaber the Operations Section Cheif for the Northern Rockies IMT was grateful for the opportunity to speak with the governor on this fire.
“This fire’s been a pretty tough fight from the start so it’s really a good opportunity to show him what the firefighters are doing on the ground and really the successes that we’ve had this year," Kaber said.
Gov. Gianforte was briefed on the size of the fire, the concentrated areas the crews are currently working on and what resources are being used to fight this fire among other things. He explained how this fire has been high on the state’s priority list.
“Well this is the number one fire in the state right now in terms of resources, we’ve been throwing everything we have at it aviation assets, ground crews, and staffing.”
The governor was also given a helicopter tour of the fire where he saw an aerial view of the work currently happening and measures that were taken before it started.
“Well, it was really impressive to see this fire from the air and to see the positive impact that prior forest management projects have aided us in fighting this fire when there’s less fuels on the ground it’s much easier to hold a defensive line," Gov. Gianforte said.
As the Colt Fire continues to burn, members of the Northern Rockies fire crew are confident the blaze could be on a downswing, but there is still a lot of work to do.
