Montana Wildfires Spread
No relief is expected from fire-favorable weather as wildfires continue to spring up and expand across the state, forecasters said Saturday.
Temperatures ranged from the low 90s to more than 100 degrees, with Miles City and Roundup reporting 105. Helena reported a record 103.
Typical Montana temperatures for this time of year are in the mid-80s, said Douglas Vogelsang of the National Weather Service in Great Falls.
By 8 p.m. Saturday, at least one lightning-caused wildfire had almost doubled. The Wedge Canyon fire on the Flathead River’s North Fork drainage was at 650 acres, up from 350 acres Saturday morning. Spokesman Allen Rowley said about 300 firefighters were expected to join crews already on the scene by noon today.
The Blackwall fire in extreme western Montana doubled in size to 900 acres by Saturday, all of the growth coming on the Montana side of the border.
“What it’s burning on the Montana side is miles and miles of lodgepole pine,” said Jack de Golia, spokesman for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. “There’s unbroken, unlimited fuel ahead of it.”
Montana’s biggest blaze, the Mickey Butte fire on the C.M. Russell Wildlife Refuge, grew about 500 acres to 3,600 acres on Saturday.
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