Wind-Whipped Montana Fires Burn Structures, Spur Evacuations

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Wildfires burning in Montana have exploded in size, triggering evacuations and destroying an unknown number of homes as furious winds stoked the blazes and caused a fire helicopter to crash land, officials said Wednesday.

In the Big Belt Mountains east of Townsend, firefighters pulled back from a fire burning in a heavily-timbered canyon and took refuge in safety zones when the blaze began moving so fast and hot that it became unsafe to try to stop it, said Erin Fryer with the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.

The fire burning in timber and grass in the Deep Creek area grew at least tenfold overnight Tuesday, from less than one square mile (3 square kilometers) to more than three square miles (8 square kilometers). An unknown number of structures were destroyed, Fryer said.

A state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation fire helicopter crash-landed in the heavy winds and caught fire. The five people aboard got out safely and only minor injuries were reported for one of them.

A subdivision with about 50 to 100 houses and cabins was evacuated. The forward edge of the blaze was still several miles away from the Grassy Mountain subdivision Wednesday morning but Fryer said erratic winds in the forecast could make it harder to contain the fire.

A fire burning south of the tourist town of Red Lodge near the stateline with Wyoming grew from about 3 square miles (8 square kilometers) to more than 31 square miles (85 square kilometers) by Wednesday morning, prompting a rapid evacuation of hundreds houses in the path of the blaze, said fire spokesperson Amy Hyfield.

Hyfield said fire crews were deployed to protect houses but it was not immediately known if any burned. No injuries were reported.

The fire was threatening 450 homes and hundreds more buildings and other infrastructure, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said. The agency on Wednesday deemed the fire a major disaster because of the amount of damage it could cause.

On the Crow Reservation, officials reported a new fire in the Bighorn Mountains near the Montana-Wyoming border. The fire was burning in steeply-sided Little Bull Elk Canyon, with flames up to 150 feet (46 meters) high that threatened to spread the blaze rapidly, officials said.

A fire 16 miles (26 kilometers) southwest of Ashland in southeast Montana threatened an unspecified number of homes and had burned one square mile by Wednesday morning.

About the photo: In this photo provided by Jim Bentler, the Robertson Draw fire is seen burning south of Red Lodge, Mont., on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Authorities warned of extreme wildfire danger in Montana and Wyoming Tuesday as a sweltering heat wave was forecast to intensify across large parts of the two states after already delivering record high temperatures. (Jim Bentler via AP)