Some houses won’t be saved: Ravalli County works on plan for fire season

"The greatest expense comes in the protection of life and property, and that is also where you have the biggest risk to firefighters and public safety," Bonney said. "If we don’t show where these hazards are then we are just going in with our blinders on."

This summer, when wildfires roar across Ravalli County, fire managers may well look at homes in the flames’ path and decide they aren’t worth saving.

That could be because there is only one road in and out of the property, because there is not room to turn a fire truck around, because the forests or grasslands surrounding the home have not been managed well, or because the home itself does not have defensible space surrounding it.

The scenario is not dissimilar from triaging patients during a large-scale medical emergency – you focus your efforts on the ones you are most likely to save.

Theoretically, according to a recently released study by Bitterroot Resource Conservation and Development, no spot in the county is entirely free from the risk of wildfires.

By JEFF SCHMERKER Ravalli Republic

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