Wind-Driven Fires in Yellowstone Area Shut Roads, Imperil 2 Towns

Gusty winds spread fires over at least 350,000 acres in Yellowstone National Park, while 1,100 soldiers were trained Sunday to reinforce firefighters battling a 110,000-acre blaze advancing toward two Montana communities.

The 60-m.p.h. winds that whipped up walls of flame 100 feet high and 30,000-foot columns of smoke on Saturday had abated by Sunday, when gusts were expected to reach about 25 m.p.h., said Joan Anzelmo of the park staff.

“We have an intense fire situation in Yellowstone,” she said. About 3,000 firefighters have been at work for several weeks in the park.

Instructors from the Boise Interagency Fire Center were training troops at Ft. Lewis, Wash., to relieve civilian firefighters and free the expert crews for more complex work, fire officials said.

The soldiers were to board Army transport planes today for flights to Bozeman, Mont. They will be assigned to the Clover-Mist fire in Yellowstone, said Chuck Tarver, a civilian installation operations officer at the Army base south of Tacoma.

The winds in Yellowstone forced evacuations and closing of the park’s south entrance as well as the Grant Village area, which contains a hotel, a campground and park staff housing. Several stretches of roads inside the park, as well as the Norris, Pebble Creek and Madison campgrounds, also remained closed.

On Sunday, several hundred residents of Silver Gate and Cooke City, Mont., two communities near Yellowstone, were standing by to be evacuated as the 100,000-acre fire came within 6 miles of their homes.

Firefighters were battling blazes all across Montana, where more than 115,000 acres were involved in the worst fires since 1984.