BILLINGS, Mont.—Fast-moving wildfires triggered new evacuations Monday in southeast Montana, as firefighters battled a potent combination of lightning strikes, dry weather and flame-whipping winds.
The number of fires kept climbing, and a dozen major blazes now active in the state have burned roughly 360 square miles of forest and prairie.
After a round of lightning strikes over the weekend sparked new fires, officials warned heavy winds forecast for Tuesday could push the blazes more quickly than firefighters can contain them.
A special federal fire prevention team arrived in Montana ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.
It’s part of a stepped-up effort to keep man-made fires from adding to the danger as the 2012 fire season shapes up to be one of the worst in years.
The acreage burned to date already is close to topping the annual average and there are still several months still to go.
“It’s so volatile out there. If there are winds, the fires can quickly get out of hand,” said Melodie Lloyd with the Bureau of Land Management. “We always this time of year beat people over the head with ‘be careful, be careful.’ We really mean it this year.”
The most volatile blazes Monday were the Ash Creek fire near Ashland and the Horse Creek fire south of Hysham.
Flames from the 290-square-mile, lightning-caused Ash Creek fire pushed south over U.S. Highway 212. That triggered evacuations in a sparsely populated area between Broadus and Ashland.
Meanwhile, the Horse Creek blaze had roughly tripled in size to more than 9 square miles since its Sunday ignition.
The blaze was threatening a natural gas pipeline and a pair of high-voltage NorthWestern Energy transmission lines that pass through the remote, hilly area of Treasure County.
State officials initially said evacuations notices were issued for the fire, but Treasure County Sheriff Wayne Robinson said there were few residents in the area and he had not told anyone to leave.
However, homes and outbuildings on some ranches were threatened and officials said they were bringing in more firefighters and support personnel to handle the fire.
The cause of the uncontained blaze was under investigation.
As agricultural areas in eastern Montana lost pasture lands to the fires, Republican U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg called on the Department of Agriculture to open lands in the federal Conservation Reserve Program to emergency grazing.
Rehberg said the move would give more flexibility to landowners after Gov. Brian Schweitzer issued disaster declarations for counties and Indian reservations battling fires.
State and federal officials said there was no immediate impact in Montana from Monday’s grounding of Air Force C-130 tankers following a crash of one of the aircraft in South Dakota.
None of the tankers was being used on the big Montana fires, but officials said the ripple effects of the accident remained uncertain as fires continue to spread throughout the West and more tankers are needed.
With firework bans in place for about a dozen Montana counties, Schweitzer said Monday that he would not impose a statewide ban. He said the decision should be left to local officials.
Even in areas with bans, people have still been observed lighting them, state Forester Bob Harrington said during a briefing with the governor.
“It so far doesn’t seem to be making a difference. There are folks still shooting fireworks in the evenings,” Harrington said.
About half the fires this year have been human-caused, with lightning strikes responsible for most of the remainder.
Conditions are considered prime for the fires to continue. Schweitzer said such high fire potential is usually not seen until the height of summer in August.
So far in 2012, 335 homes, outbuildings and other structures have been destroyed. Most of those came during the Dahl fire south of Roundup, where 73 homes and 150 outbuildings burned.
Authorities say the perimeter lines around the 22,000-acre Dahl fire held overnight despite heavy wind and thunderstorms. It was 75 percent contained and a voluntary evacuation order for the area of the Bull Mountains that burned was lifted Monday morning.
The Ash Creek fire, which was burning on and to the east of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, was reported at 40 percent contained Monday morning, with 16 residences and 22 outbuildings burned so far.
Because the forward edge of the blaze was burning quickly through thick, largely inaccessible timber, firefighters were staying out of its path. Instead, they were concentrating on trying to contain the fire along the edges, said Ash Creek fire spokeswoman Kathy Bushnell.
Bushnell said members of the federal firefighting team brought in to get control of the Dahl fire would be transferred to Colstrip to help with the Ash Creek and Horse Creek fires.
Another fire that ignited in recent days, the 3,100-acre Bad Horse fire east of Crow Agency, was 60 percent contained Monday.
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Matt Gouras contributed from Helena.
