Montana ablaze
<p>With burned range land stretching into the distance, Lee Carlson tightens a barbed wire fence damaged by a wildfire on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in this Aug. 9 photograph. A horse escaped through the fence earlier in the day. It's been an especially brutal fire season for the 4,500 person tribe living in a remote, arid region in eastern Wildfires have burned more than 90 square miles on the reservation since June.</p>
<p>An air tanker drops retardant on the Pine Creek</p>
<p>A “Super Scooper” plane flies low over the south end of Hungry Horse Reservoir Thursday as part of the firefighting effort on the Dart Creek Fire in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The Canadair CL-215 planes skim over the surface of the reservoir, pick up a load of water through special vents, then fly to the fire.</p>
<p> A home burns just north of East River Road in the Pine Creek Fire in Paradise Valley near Livingston Wednesday.</p>
<p>LuAnna Fox and her 3-year-old daughter Kamille watch her 10-year-old son Sheldon look for salvageable items from the ruins of the family’s house on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in this Aug. 9 photograph.</p>
Firefighters continue to hold the Dart Creek Fire at bay in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
The fire was still sized at about 10 acres on Friday, but it is burning in heavy timber about nine miles east of Condon and is considered to have high growth potential. Erratic winds have complicated firefighting operations.
Structure protection efforts were under way at the Pendant Cabin in the Big Salmon drainage near Dart Creek.
About 33 people, including smokejumpers, are committed to the fire along with helicopters and Canadair CL-215 “Super Scoopers.”
The scooper planes have been gathering water from the southern end of Hungry Horse Reservoir and flying from there to dump water on the Dart Creek Fire.