Four houses lost in 1,400-acre Helena fire
The Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years, 11 months AGO
<p>A golfer tees off as his partner watches a wildfire burning in the Scratchgravel Hills on Monday in Helena. Scorching heat and high winds caused wildfires to break out across southwestern Montana, forcing the evacuation of more than 200 homes. This fire grew to 700 acres and destroyed at least three houses. </p>
Lewis and Clark County officials began evacuating additional residences north of Helena as strong winds Tuesday afternoon fanned a 1,400-acre fire that destroyed at least four houses a day earlier.
Winds gusting up to 52 mph were recorded early Tuesday afternoon, pushing the fire to the northeast.
Sheriff Leo Dutton said officials are evacuating houses a half mile ahead of where they expect the fire to go, “but that’s like trying to guess where water’s going to go.”
The fire started shortly after 4 p.m. Monday. Dutton declined to reveal the cause, other than to say it was human-caused and it was an accident.
One of the burned homes belonged to a soldier who is deployed with the National Guard in Afghanistan, he said.
A red flag warning remained in effect until 9 p.m. Tuesday, forecasting high winds and low humidity for the Corral fire and three others burning in southwestern Montana.
The fire in the Bear Trap Canyon west of Bozeman grew to 2,300 acres by early Tuesday afternoon. Sustained winds of 40 mph grounded firefighting aircraft and pushed the fire across Montana 84 to the north. The highway was closed.
The Bureau of Land Management said the fire was human-caused.
High winds also kept firefighting aircraft grounded Tuesday at the Pony and Antelope fires, which are burning a combined 3,100 acres in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.
The Pony fire has burned 3,000 acres and prompted evacuations of about a dozen homes in a rural community southwest of Whitehall on Monday.
About 30 miles away, north of Whitehall, the Antelope fire scorched 682 acres of rugged, remote terrain and crews have to contend with rattlesnakes that could be in the area, according to the Forest Service.
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