Half-dozen wildfires rage all over Montana

KALISPELL, Mont. – Crews working to contain a wildfire on the Crow Indian Reservation made significant gains overnight and managers are optimistic it could be close to containment as early as today, an official said Friday.

“If everything goes as planned, and of course that’s a big ‘if’ with the red flag warnings coming this afternoon, we’re hoping to turn that fire back over to the tribe tomorrow morning,” said fire information officer Shannon Downey.

The Big Horn Mountain fire had burned about 5,075 acres by Friday morning and was considered about 60 percent contained, Downey said.

However, she expected that containment figure could grow considerably by day’s end after managers map the effectiveness of a series of back burns that were set Thursday evening.

“We were anxious to get that done,” she said.

The fire was the largest of about a half-dozen wildfires burning in the state as of Friday. Nearly 200 firefighters are battling the blaze.

The Berry Meadows fire in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest southwest of Jackson had burned more than 500 acres by Friday, said Jack de Golia, fire information officer. The acreage includes a spot fire about a mile ahead of the main fire.

More than 200 firefighters are battling the blaze, which is burning lodgepole pine and dead, standing trees and snags. Firefighters are aided by two helicopters and two air tankers.

Forecasters had issued a red flag warning Friday for much of the state, with expectations of high winds and low humidity as a cold front was expected to move through the region.

On the Berry Meadows fire, firefighters are helping protect three cabins on a homestead near Berry Creek. Two other occupied buildings on the Dooling Ranch, just outside the national forest, are also potentially in the fire’s path.

De Golia said none of the buildings was considered in immediate danger.

West of Pompeys Pillar, a pickup truck started a grass fire that spread to burn more than 1,000 acres.

Anne Rowe said she and her husband were driving on their land when the heat from their pickup’s tailpipe started a grass fire. As they were heading home for help, they smelled smoke again. When they opened the hood of the truck, flames were coming from the engine and the interior. The pickup was destroyed.

Driven by strong, erratic winds, the Vallec fire raced over recently cut hay fields and rangeland with scattered timber. Crews stopped the eastern edge of the fire a few hundred yards from Rowe’s ranch house.

Babete Anderson, information officer for the Custer National Forest, said the fire was also being fought by a slurry plane and a helicopter.

On the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge, a remapping of the McArthur fire shows the area burned to be 930 acres, down from Wednesday’s estimate of 1,100 acres. The fire was active Thursday, but mostly within its borders, officials said.

Smaller fires were burning near the ghost town of Garnet and in the Little Belt Mountains near Neihart, but both drew a lot of attention.

Seven 20-member crews were dispatched to the Berrit Gulch fire, which had burned between 50 and 75 acres about a mile from Garnet.

Winds and dry lightning were predicted for the area, so fire officials responded quickly to the human-caused fire.

“If we get the weather that’s predicted, it won’t be very pretty,” said Jamie Rosdahl, an information officer with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

The Johnson Gulch fire south of Neihart remained at 15 acres Thursday, but crews were concerned that gusty winds could push the fire closer to town. The lightning-caused fire is burning in heavy timber about 2 1/2 miles from Neihart.

Between 75 and 80 people are working on the fire, said Jim Homison, assistant fire management officer with the Forest Service.