Eastern Montana wildfires torch dozens of homes

AP Photo/The Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer

Lights from a fire truck streak across a burning hillside in a time exposure as the Dahl fire burns, south of Roundup,overnight Wednesday.

ROUNDUP — Wildfires that have torched more than 200 square miles and burned dozens of homes in southeast Montana spread farther Wednesday, triggering another round of evacuations after a blaze south of Roundup jumped a perimeter line built by firefighters.

The growing, wind-driven Dahl fire, which has burned more than 60 homes by one estimate, forced an unknown number of residents to leave their homes near its southern flank, on top of an estimated 600 people evacuated the day before.

To the southeast, the Ash Creek fire near the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation burned 18 homes and grew to 110,000 acres in less than 24 hours. Eleven homes burned on the reservation and seven more on private land.

"That's one of the most dangerous fires in the history of Montana," Gov. Brian Schweitzer said of the Ash Creek fire as he toured the region by airplane Wednesday.

In western Montana, cooler temperatures and calmer winds helped firefighters keep four wildfires in check, though evacuations were still in effect and homes were still being threatened.

The Dahl fire had burned about 18,500 acres since igniting Tuesday in a heavily timbered area of the Bull Mountains. Musselshell County Sheriff Woody Weitzeil told the Billings Gazette that at least one person was unaccounted for and several animals have been lost to the fire.

On the Dahl ranch, near where the fire started Tuesday, 76-year-old Richard Kirchhevel and his son Chris, 37, were moving from one hot spot to another with a shovel and a hose fed by a water tank on the back of their pickup to prevent flames from jumping a roadway.

The grass at their feet was charred and smoking where the fire had already passed through. Flames licked up the sides of trees on the surrounding hillsides, periodically igniting the crowns of the pines into scorching fireballs.

"I worked all night last night, took an hour off, and kept on working," Richard Kirchhevel said.

Toby Dahl, whose family owns the ranch the fire is named after, said he spent all of Tuesday night working with a neighbor digging a fire line, but the flames moved fast. An area would be fine one moment, then he'd come back "and it's torched," he said. There was no obvious relief in sight, he said.

"It's so far from over," Dahl said.

Robert Brengman, 67, was able to get into his property briefly Wednesday morning to survey the damage to the house he and his wife had started building on 80 acres.

The fire swept through the area, burning the wood they'd purchased, their tools and most of their possessions, which were being stored in their shop.

"I lost every damn thing I own except my tractor," he said.

Schweitzer extended an emergency declaration on Wednesday to include the Northern Cheyenne reservation and Musselsshell, Rosebud, Custer, Treasure, Yellowstone, Powder River and Big Horn counties.

The order, which allows the governor to mobilize state resources and the Montana National Guard, extends the emergency Schweitzer declared Tuesday in Lewis and Clark, Broadwater, Jefferson and Madison counties.

But with fires burning across the Rocky Mountains, state officials said they were being forced to scramble to come up with enough firefighters and equipment to keep up with the growing numbers of fires.

At least one air tanker was working the Dahl fire, with more on order. It was uncertain when those would arrive.

North of Helena, some residents were allowed back to their homes after the Corral fire forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents on Monday and Tuesday and burned four homes.

Authorities were keeping residents away from homes on the southern flank of the 1,850-acre fire but said they had made gains on Wednesday thanks to better weather and more resources, and the blaze was now 35 percent contained.

"The last two days, we had been on defense. The fire had its will," Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said. "Today was our turn."

Dutton said the fire was started by a resident who had burned brush on his property over the weekend. The man had a permit for the burn and thought he had done everything correctly — the fire appeared to be out for the rest of the weekend and for much of Monday — but then it flared up Monday afternoon and the wind took it, Dutton said.

To the southeast, Gallatin County authorities said two structures were lost and evacuations have been ordered in the Bear Trap fire near the Madison River.

That fire, which authorities said was human caused, has grown to more than 3,000 acres and is uncontained.

The Pony fire southeast of Whitehall doubled in size Tuesday, spreading to 6,400 acres, authorities said. Two structures have burned and about 80 homes were threatened, officials said.

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