A report of a five miles west of Dixon, MT is called in to the Ronan Dispatch Center by a private citizen.

The Dispatcher immediately records the call in his log book, writing down the name of the person reporting the fire, the person's location, the fuel type, and information about fire behavior. He asks the caller for as much information as possible.

Reports of fires come to the Ronan Dispatch Center in many ways. Reports of fires are generally made by citizens, fire lookouts, aircraft, tribal employees, and other dispatch centers. All reported fires and actions are documented in a dispatcher log book. The dispatcher asks lots of questions and gathers and records as much information as possible.

A Flathead Agency incident number is assigned. This will serve as the temporary file name until the Incident Commander names the fire. Engine(s) and/or helicopter resources are called. The appropriate fire supervisor and FMO are called. Everything is documented in the dispatcher's log book and the fire-file process is started. The first unit on the scene establishes command and indent management. Dispatch announces who the Incident Commmander is on the Flathead Agency radio network frequency. Arrivals of all resources are documented in the log book. The first unit on the scene reports actual fire details.

Support is continued to be provided to the incident and all communications regarding the incident are documented. When the original dispatcher is relieved from dispatch duties; the replacement is briefed on the fire status and any issues that may be of service.

Fire is designated a Class C Fire (10 acres or larger) and suspected to be human-caused. Incident Commander (IC) and Fire Management Officer (FMO) request Tribal Council for limited Dixon-area closures because they believe additional person-caused fires could occur. IC determines negligence/non-negligence and requests a fire investigator. He isolates and protects the fire's point of origin and any other evidence. He establishes and maintains radio contact with agency dispatch and makes recommended suppression requests. Requests for additional resources are ordered through Missoula Interagency Dispatch Center (MDC), and the FMO is kept informed. In this case the IC requests aircraft support because of high-value and high-risk areas (Dixon community). A Public Information Officer is designated for news media releases. The IC coordinates with other involved agencies and determines manpower needs based on fire dance, preparedness level, and resource values at risk. Planning for expanded mobilization and support activities begins. The IC establishes cost/reimbursement method and files and the fire investigator's written report.

IC and FMO also consider the following items:

Large wildland fires occurred frequently in the Northern Rockies prior to 1910. Significant fire years (years during which many acres burned) probably occurred about twice a decade. Literature indicates that very large fire seasons may have occurred in 1894 and 1898. Those fires burned extensive high-elevation forests in the Northern Rockies. The number of acres burned may have exceeded several million (for comparison, 3 million acres burned later in the 1910 fire season). Fire literature and turn-of-the-century pictures indicate that the southern portions of the Mission Mountains and the South Fork Jocko areas experienced large, stand-replacement fires during this period. The Scapegoat and Selway/Bitterroot areas were also extensively burned.

It is estimated that over 60,000 acres burned on the Flathead Reservation in 1910. A single fire east of Ronan burned roughly 20,000 acres. Other larger fires burned unchecked in the Camas Prairie, the North Fork Jocko and Pistol Creek drainages, and the Charity Peak area. The North Fork Jocko Fire started during August as the result of lightning strikes in the Twin Lakes and Grizzly Creek areas. The fires from these multiple ignitions joined to form one large fire that burned to the east and northeast. At least 25,000 acres burned on of the southern portion of what is now the Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness. Timber maps (based on timber ages) indicate that this fire also burned thousands of acres east of the reservation boundary.Only winter snows extinguished it. A single fire started at about the same time in the Skunk Meadows area. Old 1934 aerial photographs suggest that this fire burned up the Jocko Drainage to tie in with the North Fork Jocko fires and ended at the South Fork Jocko gate area. It was a combination of stand-replacement and non-lethal fires estimated at about 6,000 acres. The fires in the Charity Peak area did not burn together. Remnant lodgepole pine stands indicate that several fifty- to one-hundred-acre fires burned there. A fire in the Schley area may have burned several thousand acres and spread up Finley Creek and to the northeast toward Agency Creek.

Both 1927 and 1929 were active fire years in the Northern Rockies. Fires during this period were confined to mostly high-elevation forests. A large portion were human-caused from carelessness with fire and railroad fires. Records indicate that large fires occurred in the Valley Creek and LaMoose Creek watersheds, and the South Fork Jocko Primitive Area. A fire of about 56,000 acres burned in the South and East Forks of Valley Creek during this period as well as a 2,000- to 3,000-acre fire in LaMoose area. Two fires, each about 1,000 to 2,000 acres, burned in the Big Knife, Agency Creek, and Schley Creek areas.

The 1930s had active fire seasons in 1931, 1935, and 1939. Human-caused fires were a continuing problem. Most of the fires in the Jocko River drainage were not very large. Fire records and old aerial photos indicate that several large fires (one to three hundred acres in size) occurred in the Evaro, Stevens Creek, and Arlee areas.

Except for 1941, the Jocko River drainage was relatively quiet during the 1940s. Fire prevention efforts were starting to pay benefits because most fires were caused by lightning and human-caused fire starts were down significantly. Larger fires during this decade occurred primarily in the La Moose Creek, Finley Creek, and upper Big Knife Creek areas and were relatively small in size—less than 20 acres. Aerial photos and timber-stand data indicate that a large fire did occur in the Finley Creek Area. It spread to the northeast into the Big Knife Creek and Jocko area. This fire probably occurred in the early 1940’s and was about 9,000 to 10,000 acres in size.

Several very large fires occurred in the Revais, Magpie, and Vanderburg Creek drainages in 1941. These high-elevation wildfires burned an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 acres.

Like the 1940s, the decade of the 50s was a relatively slow one for fires. Some large fires did occur. The most active years were in 1957 and 1958. Most of the burns were relatively small except for fires in the Skunk Meadows and Evaro areas. The Skunk Meadows Area Fire in 1957 started along the north bank of the Jocko River. It burned to the north into the Skunk Meadows and Pistol Creek areas, consuming 5,000 to 6,000 acres before being suppressed by fire-fighting forces. At about the same time, a 3,000 acre fire (caused by the railroad) burned just south of Evaro. It consumed about 1,000 acres on the reservation.

Except for fires in the South Fork of the Jocko Primitive Area, most of the fires of this decade were small. In 1960, two large lightning started in the Belmore and Yellow Lake areas. The Gold Creek fire started just southeast of Liberty Meadows (on State of Montana lands) in mid-August. It was about 8,000 acres in size and burned onto the reservation consuming about 3,000 acres in the Liberty Meadows and Yellow Lake areas. The Belmore Slough fire also burned some 3,500 areas in the South Fork of the Jocko. Both fires were very difficult to control but were finally put in late September.

1961 was an active fire year in the Northern Rockies. The reservation was no exception. A late fall fire occurred in the Crazy Fish Lakes area in 1961. It burned about 5,000 acres and started from burning logging slash debris when there was about six inches of snow on the ground. Weather conditions warmed up, winds increased, and the fire escaped. This stand-replacement fire burned until late October.

Several smaller fires occurred in the Valley Creek and Ravalli areas later in the decade. All were under 20 acres.

Increases in local fire suppression resources (helicopters and smoke-jumpers), improved detection systems (lookouts and aerial detection flights), and normal or moist conditions kept fire numbers low and fire sizes small during this period. Several 10-to-50-acre fires occurred in the South Fork Jocko and Valley Creek areas during the 1970s.

In late-August 1981, fifty-five (55) lightning fires occurred on the reservation during a 3-day period. Most occurred in the Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness, the South Fork Jocko Primitive Area, and the Valley Creek area and were suppressed with small smoke-chaser crews. They were generally limited to less than 5 acres in size. The largest occurred in the East Fork Valley Creek, and it was fifty-five acres.

The 1990s saw a fair number of starts, but most were suppressed before they reached ten (10) acres in size. The largest—the Pistol Creek Lookout Fire—occurred in August 1991. It reached 90 acres in size. The Jocko River area was relatively quite during the severe 1994 fire season (17,000 acres burned on the reservation). Numerous lightning fires occurred, but they were mostly suppressed before they grew larger than five acres in size.

About 25,000 acres burned on the reservation during this fire season. Several ten-to-twenty-acre fires occurred in the Jocko drainage. The largest was the Schley Fire. An arson fire, it was started in late August and grew to 480 acres. It was difficult to control and was visible from the valley floor and from Highway 93.

About 135 fires occurred in 2003, and about 3,200 acres burned. In the Jocko River drainage (Pistol Creek, Finley Lakes, Valley Creek) most of the fires were relatively small in size (under 5 acres). Two large fires in the Boles Creek and Rattlesnake Wilderness Areas (State and U.S. Forest Service lands) threatened to burn into the South Fork Jocko Primitive Area. The Boles Meadow Fire was 4,600 acres in size and burned about 300 acres of Tribal land in the Liberty Meadows area. The 27,000 acre Mineral/Prim fire burned about 50 acres of Tribal land in the Crazy Fish Lake area.