Central Montana Fire Takes A Turn For The Better Blaze Covers 3,200 Acres,Was Man-Caused

The Coyote Creek fire, stalled outside the town of Neihart for three days by weather and nearly 1,000 firefighters, was turning on itself Thursday.

Unable to spread, the 3,200-acre fire was using up fuel inside its perimeter and not moving closer to the tiny town in the Little Belt Mountains or scores of homes in the Lewis and Clark National Forest.

“It’s looking good,” said fire information officer Bob Krepps.

But an evacuation plan remains in effect for Neihart, and a special defense group will remain in the town at least through Saturday, said Bill Murray, Cascade County director of disaster and emergency services.

The fire is about four miles southwest of town, which has fewer than 100 residents in the summer.

“It’s stable - amazingly stable, in fact,” Murray said of the fire.

By Saturday, he said, fire managers expect to know either that the danger is over or how long it may continue.

“They still consider Neihart at risk, but they can almost guarantee a 24-hour lead time” if the town is threatened, Murray said.

The fire also threatens Showdown Ski Area, about five miles southeast.

Nearly 400 more firefighters arrived from around the country Wednesday night, some of them pulled from other fires. Krepps said no more would be requested.

A U.S. Forest Service investigator said the fire, previously thought the result of dry lightning, was man-caused and began in an active logging-sale area.

Some logging equipment near where the fire began was overrun and destroyed. A logger said that by the time he and his crew were notified of the emergency, they barely had time to flee and left everything behind.

“It started down-country from us. We didn’t have time enough to get the equipment, and when we returned the next morning, it was gone - everything,” he said.

Meanwhile, in southwestern Montana, nearly 500 firefighters were struggling with the Upper Willow Creek fire about nine miles east of Corvallis.

The related 120-acre Lower Willow Creek fire was controlled and in the mop-up stage, but firefighters had lines around only about 20 percent of the 290-acre Upper Willow fire.

The larger fire was burning heavy timber in steep terrain, some so rugged it was deemed unsafe for firefighters. But two helicopters were especially effective because they could scoop water from two nearby lakes, said fire information officer Mike Oliver.

Firefighters also were being aided by two bulldozers, not to scrape fire lines but to open old roads and permit access by fire engines, Oliver said.

“Yesterday on the northern flank, we were able to lay more than 10,000 feet of hose,” he said. One segment alone was close to a mile long.