Fire looms close to Hamilton
Fire officials said Tuesday there was no containment in sight for a western Montana wildfire that has grown to more than 6 square miles and prompted an evacuation order for hundreds of houses west of Hamilton.
With flames from the Sawtooth Fire reaching into inaccessible canyons where there’s little chance to fight them, local and federal officials said the blaze is likely to burn until the snow falls.
Crews scrambled Tuesday to shore up a containment line hastily dug around the fire’s perimeter Monday, when gusting winds pushed flames toward an estimated 400 homes.
Sawtooth Fire spokesman Gregg DeNitto with the U.S. Forest Service says there was no word on when residents might return. The fire exploded over the last two days from 600 acres to almost 4,000 acres.
No houses were reported destroyed. But Ravalli County Commissioner Suzy Foss said because of the fire’s location upwind of houses and the difficult terrain, the blaze will remain a risk to residents and property until it’s out.
“It’s literally been pushing it to our community,” Foss said. “We’re going to have fire until we have heavy, heavy rains or deep snow. If we have the right conditions, it could come right into our town.”
DeNitto said most threatened houses were still a half-mile to a mile from the fire’s edge.
An estimated 1,000 people live within the evacuated area, although Foss said not all of them left. Of those who fled, most were staying with friends, relatives or acquaintances, Foss said. Only a couple residents spent the night at a Red Cross shelter set up in Hamilton for evacuees, according to DeNitto.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning across much of the Northern Rockies through Tuesday evening. The service said a combination of gusting winds and low humidity levels would make it easier for new fires to catch hold and spread.
That marked the third day in a row of challenging conditions on the Millie Fire 20 miles south of Bozeman, which is threatening the city’s water supply and ten commercial buildings. Fire spokeswoman Jennifer Myslivy said the flames were stopped for now at the top of a ridge over South Cottonwood Canyon, sparing adjacent areas that serve as Bozeman’s watershed.
The fire was reported at 40 percent contained. Myslivy said authorities hoped to ratchet that figure up Tuesday amid cooler temperatures that could help calm the blaze.
Crews elsewhere in Montana were fighting several new fires sparked when lightning passed through Monday.
Southwest of Broadus, the Dutch Fire grew to an estimated 26 square miles by Tuesday afternoon — just 24 hours after it was first reported in rough timber country in the Powder River Breaks area, said Eric Lepisto, fire management officer for the Bureau of Land Management in Miles City.
Lepisto said there were homes within a half-mile to a mile from the edge of the fire, but none was immediately threatened. The fire was expected to be fully contained late Tuesday night.
The Allen Fire, threatening 25 homes in the Delphia Pines subdivision about 16 miles east of Roundup, was 50 percent contained Tuesday. It burned about half of a square mile and was being fought by about 80 state and local firefighters, said Paula Short with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
Short said a line had been built around the perimeter of the fire to keep it from expanding farther, but unburned trees and other fuel inside the blaze would likely continue to flare up.
There were a few spot fires outside of the lines overnight Monday, but Short said they were extinguished.
In northern Gallatin County, another fire first reported Monday grew to almost 5 square miles Tuesday. No houses were threatened by the lightning-caused blaze known as the Bean Fire, said Kerry O’Connell with Gallatin emergency management.
National Weather Service forecasters said the cool weather was supposed to linger for a couple more days, giving a potential boost to firefighters before warm weather returns Friday.