Montana fire crews brace for high winds

RED LODGE, Mont. – Crews dug in against a 5,900-acre wildfire threatening this ski town 60 miles southwest of Billings on Tuesday. The immediate threat to the town appeared to have eased, but flame-whipping winds were forecast to pick up overnight.

By evening, the fire remained about eight miles outside town and two miles from the Red Lodge Mountain Resort.

Authorities had told residents of about 200 homes west of town that an evacuation order could come at any time. A National Weather Service meteorologist said winds of 20 to 25 mph could push down the canyon overnight, stirring up the fire and further drying unburned areas. Those winds had been expected earlier Tuesday.

“It’s given us some time to do some (fire) line building and suppression work,” said Traute Parrie, district ranger for the Custer National Forest, where the fire began Saturday afternoon.

The Cascade fire has burned just over nine square miles in stands of ponderosa pine and blown-down trees in the west fork of Rock Creek – a canyon that runs from the Beartooth Mountains straight into Red Lodge.

Firefighters were working to dig lines around the back and sides of the fire in hopes of eventually pinching it off before it could move down the canyon. Ground crews have been unable to attack the two-mile fire front directly because of the terrain and the amount of fuel available for the fire to burn.

Nearly 500 firefighters and support crews were on the blaze, along with air tankers, five helicopters, 21 engines and two bulldozers.

Employees at Red Lodge Mountain Resort continued running snowmaking guns to wet down lodges and lift shacks.

Tom Kuntz, fire chief in Red Lodge, told people living west of town, close to the mountains, that it was likely they would have to evacuate. He said fire officials hoped the nearly 2,500 residents of Red Lodge would be able to stay in their homes, but he asked them to be ready to leave.

The fire has burned five summer cabins since it started and was zero percent contained. Its cause remained under investigation.