RIVER CITY ROOTS FEST THIS WEEKEND
HELLGATE GOLF SHINES AT MISSOULA INVITATIONAL
ENTERTAINER
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missoulian.com
FRIDAY, August 23, 2013
Copyright 2013 $1
TOP LEFT: Members of a firefighting crew from Virginia that just arrived get their bearings on a map before being assigned hand-line work on the fire’s eastern edge. BOTTOM LEFT: Fire burns through grass and timber Thursday across U.S. Highway 12 from Fort Fizzle near the area where firefighters were hurriedly working before predicted winds to get fire line established to try to stop the Lolo Creek Complex fire’s eastern movement before it reaches Sleeman Gulch.
LOLO CREEK
Staying on guard KURT WILSON/Missoulian
Crews work to stop growth
Man returns to Montana, finds home razed by fire By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian
LOLO – The owner of the U.S. Highway 12 home known for its distinctive wavy, white fence returned to Montana on Tuesday, to learn he had no home to return to. “The house was furnished with everything, even my shaving cream, so I didn’t bring anything with me,” Mike Amidi said from Lolo on Thursday. “No toothbrush, no shaving cream. I took a room in a place I
By MARTIN KIDSTON of the Missoulian
LOLO – With a rip of their chain saws, a fire crew from Michigan marched down a newly carved dozer line removing brush and limbs, building what fire managers hope will stop the Lolo Creek Complex fire from pushing east INSIDE across Sleeman Gulch. n Air All along the quality fire’s eastern front updates. on Thursday, fire Page A11 crews scattered across sunn Donating parched ridges and to help blackened fields families preparing for who’ve lost winds forecast homes. later in the Page A11 evening. Exactly when n Sky the winds would lantern come remained a warning. big uncertainty, Page A12 and it left fire crews racing the clock and an invisible hour they hoped would never arrive. “We’re trying to hold this fire in check for the next couple hours until we can get a line built across that opposite ridge so we can fire it off and secure it with the highway,” said firefighter Jim Harrington. From his vantage point at
See RAZED, Page A11
K-8 SCHOOL
Woodman’s start date uncertain By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian
LOLO – With fire all around Woodman School, and families evacuated from their homes along the U.S. Highway 12 corridor west of Lolo, the start of school poses a lot of questions. “We don’t start until Sept. 3, but if the school is unable to open because of the fires then we would be looking at an alternative location,” said Erin See WOODMAN, Page A12
KURT WILSON/Missoulian
See CREWS, Page A12
MINERAL COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
Hundreds sign petition, seek doctor’s reinstatement By KIM BRIGGEMAN of the Missoulian
SUPERIOR – Some 260 people have signed their names to a petition calling for the reinstatement of a popular doctor at Mineral Community Hospital. “That’s a lot of people, a lot
of patients that want their doctor back, and I see no reason whatsoever why he should not be hired back,” Leona Crichton said Thursday. Crichton, a local shopkeeper, is spearheading the drive to rehire James Patterson, who was fired in November and reached a settlement with the
hospital after filing a wrongful termination suit. Crichton told the hospital board she’s had a county commissioner review the petition but said she won’t show it to board members. “There are signatures from people from the hospital and the clinic who fear for their jobs
if their names are known,” she said. Patterson was fired by chief executive officer Steve Carty, whose administration has come under heat for a number of terminations and demotions at the hospital. Denyse Traeder, co-director of a $10.5 million health care
innovations grant for the Mineral Regional Health Center, told that board she has been subjected to threats, intimidation and retaliation in the four months since she uncovered and documented misuses of the federal grant. See DOCTOR, Page A11
UP TO 60% OFF OF ADULT AND YOUTH PUNCH CARDS SEE TODAYSDEALMISSOULA.COM FOR MORE DETAILS
TODAY’S FORECAST Thunderstorms expected High 84º Low 52º Page C12
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Missoula County: Courthouse, annex renovation ongoing. Page B1
Ravalli County: Officials consider hiring debt collector. Page B1
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