Cabins threatened by Montana wildfire
PHILIPSBURG, Mont. – A new lightning-sparked wildfire in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest grew to nearly 300 acres Friday, threatening about a dozen cabins and other buildings as crews and equipment poured into an area about 25 miles southeast of here, officials said.
Four 20-person hand crews and various other equipment were called to the fire, and an expert fire-management team was assigned, said information officer Pat McKelvey.
The privately owned cabins were not occupied, but were within a quarter-mile of the Frog Pond fire.
Air tankers were dropping retardant, and helicopters were dropping water on the fire, which erupted Thursday afternoon from lightning.
McKelvey said the fire was burning in very heavy fuel, much of it downed timber, and more lightning accompanied a passing thunderstorm on Friday, with more predicted, he said.
Bureau of Land Management spokesman David Early said “red flag” weather – winds gusting to 40 mph, low humidity and dry thunderheads drifting from Idaho – have fire managers concerned. “It just means it’s not good weather for firefighting. It’s more conducive for fire spreading,” he said.
Twenty-two smokejumpers initially fought the fire.
McKelvey said some trails would be closed. The fire is along the border in Granite and Ravalli counties and burning in both the Beaverhead-Deerlodge and Bitterroot national forests.
Also Friday, Beaverhead-Deerlodge forest officials said they had determined the Berry Meadows fire, which burned nearly 500 acres south of Jackson, was human-caused and not started by lightning as originally believed. The fire was contained earlier this week.
Forest officials were asking the public for information on how the blaze started.
“There is an individual or group of individuals who are responsible for starting this fire,” said Nathan Snead, a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer. “They need to come forward and take responsibility.”
Near Plains, crews were finishing the encirclement of the Baker fire, which started Monday by a piece of farm equipment and once threatened to burn into the community of Plains. Nearly 400 firefighters were assigned to the 2,315-acre fire.
In Washington, more firefighters arrived to battle a wildfire that blackened more than 3,200 acres of sagebrush and grasses near Harrington, the Lincoln County sheriff’s office reported.
The Wall Lake fire destroyed three unoccupied hunting cabins Thursday, and three residences were evacuated as a precaution, spokesman Bruce Holloway said.
About 70 firefighters and two helicopters were fighting the blaze, which was 50 percent contained late Friday.
The cause was under investigation, but a preliminary report was that it may have begun as a flare-up after a fire at a mobile home, sheriff’s Deputy Gloria Kuchenbuch said.
The fire is near the Swanson Lakes Wildlife Refuge in an area of scattered farms, Holloway said.