Several Montana Fires Started By Lightning

Firefighters were scrambling Saturday to control several range and timber fires sparked by lightning across a swath of west-central Montana overnight.

Officials assumed other fires were smoldering from numerous lightning strikes and had not been spotted. A search plane was to be sent up Saturday afternoon.

About 80 firefighters were trying to keep the biggest and most dangerous fire from leaping the Dearborn River and threatening houses and other buildings.

The Spring fire had burned about 100 acres of private land in Sawmill Gulch on the south side of the Dearborn River, about 20 miles southeast of Great Falls.

No structures were threatened, but some could be in jeopardy if the fire gets across the river, said spokesman Ken Mergenthaler at the Interagency Fire Dispatch Center in Helena.

Firefighters were being aided by two tanker planes and two helicopters. Fire engines could not get into the area.