2 Montana wildfires coming under control

BROWNING, Mont. — A pair of rare winter wildfires fueled by 60 mph gusts burned buildings and forced hundreds from their homes overnight on Montana’s Blackfeet Indian Reservation, but better weather conditions Thursday helped firefighters get a handle on the blazes.

The two blazes started around sundown Wednesday and together grew to 16,000 acres by early Thursday, said tribal spokesman Wayne Smith. At least 300 people were evacuated from homes and a boarding school, though no injuries had been reported.

“It’s probably the biggest grass fire in reservation history,” Smith said. “It was just a wall of fire heading east.”

Smith estimated that 10 to 15 buildings were damaged or destroyed on the northwestern Montana reservation east of Glacier National Park.

Fire incident commander Robert Laplant confirmed Thursday evening that one home had been destroyed but did not yet know the total number of structures damaged.

J.R. Clark, a rancher who lives off Boarding School Road north of Browning, the site of the larger fire, said he and a hired hand ignored the mandatory evacuation order and stayed to fight the blaze.

“I said, ‘You’re going to have to throw me in jail because I’m not leaving,’” Clark said. “I had to save my ranch.”

The two of them used a tractor with an attached plow to attack the fire as it approached the main house. After working from 6 p.m. until 3 a.m., the danger had passed.

They saved Clark’s house and another one across the highway, but a neighbor’s house was destroyed, as was one of Clark’s barns.

“It came up and jumped out of the river and down the hill and burned it down. There was nothing anybody could do to stop it,” Clark said.

Residents of Browning, the reservation’s largest city, said the fires illuminated the sky and created a chaotic scene as streets flooded with emergency vehicles and people who were unsure of what was happening.

“You could see flames all around on the east side of Browning, they were very clear and bright,” said resident Gabe Renville. “It was chaos. It was a danger to be out. There was traffic and flashing lights, and I was afraid somebody was going to get run over.”

Gusting wind blew the fires east, away from Browning. Rain fell at 5 a.m., followed by snow flurries about noon, helping crews gain the upper hand. The fires were 85 percent contained by Thursday afternoon, Smith said.

At least 80 firefighters and volunteers from the tribe, neighboring counties and several federal agencies responded to the blaze, fire manager Tyson Running wolf said.

They were assisted by farmers and ranchers like Clark whose land stood in the path of the fires.

Also, by Thursday morning the wind had died down to 15 mph and a cold front raised the relative humidity to 70 percent, said National Weather Service meteorologist Ben Schott.